The Festival will take place on Saturday 4 July 2026 at Nottingham Trent University (City Campus) and offers a full day of interactive workshops exploring the many ways of doing and using oral history. The programme will focus on reflection, dialogue, and shared learning around the benefits, challenges, and risks of oral history practice.
Who is the Festival for?
The Festival of Oral History 2026 welcomes anyone with an interest in oral history, including experienced and early-career practitioners, independent researchers, community historians, heritage professionals, educators, postgraduate students, and academics. The Festival provides a supportive and inclusive space to exchange ideas, reflect on practice, and learn from others working across diverse oral history contexts.
Festival Programme and Topics
The Festival programme consists of participatory workshops designed to encourage active engagement, critical reflection, and open discussion. Sessions will explore different ways of doing and using oral history, inviting attendees to reflect on their own approaches while engaging with a wide range of perspectives and experiences.
Our workshop programme explores some of the most exciting and pressing areas of contemporary oral history practice. Sessions will cover topics including emotional labour and wellbeing in oral history work, co-production and community collaboration, and creative approaches such as transforming oral histories into poetry, performance, and drama. The programme also highlights oral history’s role in documenting environmental change and everyday climate experience, as well as community-led heritage initiatives, including LGBTQ+ archiving and storytelling.
Festival Fees
Standard: £85
OHS Members: £65
Concessionary: £75
The fee includes refreshments and lunch.
OHS group members may book up to four tickets at the OHS member rate.
A limited number of bursaries are available. Please contact the Event Organiser for details.
