Beginning in 2011, Open Book Festival has from its inception aimed to create safe spaces where meaningful conversations can take place amongst the diverse and sometimes divided communities that make up this city where we live.

We have put much time into audience development and are pleased to see the people who join us each year are increasingly young and diverse. It is crucial for us to engage with as many communities as we are able to if we want events we curate to matter – missing voices leads very quickly to events that lack relevance. We reach many of those communities through partners and so collaboration is integral to what we do. In addition to our existing partners, we identify new groups to work with each year.
We have a strong history of curating events that allow robust conversation to take place exploring some of the challenges we face as South African and global citizens. We are also invested in building a love of books, reading and storytelling amongst all. We believe strongly that through our stories we better understand and empathise with each other and as such festivals such as Open Book are of fundamental and ongoing importance.