The Primadonna Festival and associated Prize was the brainchild of seventeen founding volunteers from different backgrounds, all united in a desire to open access to the publishing industry and book festivals to wider audiences and full participation of voices too often excluded or marginalised. The idea quickly grew into an annual festival in Suffolk first held in 2019 – under the slogan “The world as it should be, for one weekend”.  From 2021 onwards, the festival was hosted at the wonderful Food Museum in Stowmarket.

For six years (with a digital edition in 2020 during the pandemic) the female-led literary festival welcomed writers and readers, rebels and restless, feminists, thinkers and dreamers all genders and backgrounds and with both seen and unseen disabilities. Primadonna’s festival programme promoted inclusivity and its stellar line-up proudly demonstrated diversity, everyone brought together by a shared love of books and ideas, live music, comedy, food, drink, DJs, therapies and workshops.

We are proud of the work Primadonna Festival did to open access to the publishing industry. Fifty per cent of artists programmed had never been appeared at a festival before, whilst 15% of the audience at our last festival came from global majority backgrounds (versus 10% in Suffolk), 57% identified as LGBTQIA+, and 23% identified as d/Deaf or disabled.

In its first iteration, the Primadonna Prize produced five brilliant winners over as many years whilst others other authors secured publishing deals. The Primadonna Prize will be re-launched in association with Renard Press on November 9th, 2026.

The huge enthusiasm for Primadonna made the organisers’ decision, in 2025, to put the festival and prize on hiatus especially painful. Rising energy and production costs, the slashing of arts budgets and the impacts on festivalgoers of the cost-of-living crisis meant a choice between offering a pale version of earlier festivals or regrouping to look for other ways forward. 

In September 2025, Primadonna continued its work with the Primadonna Culture Club at Christchurch Mansion in Ipswich, creating a space for Global Majority participants and advancing the charity’s mission to amplify unheard voices.

Delivered in collaboration with Ellisha Soanes and Aspire Black Suffolk, the event featured acclaimed author, actor, podcaster and creative Kelechi Okafor as headliner. The evening championed local talent, supported skills development and encouraged participants to explore careers across the creative industries.

As Primadonna enters its next phase, the charity plans to expand its programme through a mix of in-person and online events, while continuing to explore the possibility of a future return of the Primadonna Festival. Its work will continue to celebrate both local and national cultural figures, shining a light on the writers, artists and creatives making an impact within communities.

Primadonna has also established a partnership with the University of Suffolk to support a bursary scheme aimed at widening access to postgraduate study. The initiative will help talented writers who may face structural, social or financial barriers to accessing creative and critical writing education, opening up further opportunities for underrepresented voices and local communities. For details please contact Dr Lindsey Scott, Course Leader for the MA in Creative and Critical Writing Lindsey.scott@uos.ac.uk