The Festival team, which includes Dr Selman, Arts and Culture Lead Dr Lesel Dawson (Department of English, University of Bristol) and Aisling Mustan, Event Director, have announced a new direction for the Festival. “To best serve the fantastic community built up over the last two years, and in response to feedback from them”, they say, “we have decided to offer a programme of one-day mini-festivals spread out over the coming year. Each mini-festival will have its own theme with speakers and events built around that theme.”

The hugely popular Grief Channel, a spin-off from the original Festival, now has its own YouTube channel, with all its content free to access and share. This was another development sparked by feedback from Festival attendees and made possible with funding from the National Lottery Community Fund. The Channel features over 120 talks from Good Grief festivals and events, with familiar faces like Julia Samuel, Cariad Lloyd, David Kessler, Michael Rosen, Nikesh Shukla, Ruby Wax, Stuart Lawrence, Dr Rachel Clarke, Dr Kathryn Mannix, Amber Jeffrey and Professor Robert Neimeyer.

In another exciting development, later this year the team will launch a new website, the Grief Hub, providing curated resources and signposting to a host of organisations and content from charities and groups across the UK.

Dr Selman said: "The aim of Good Grief is to normalise the conversation around grief and show that, while it can be incredibly tough, grief is a natural part of life and can actually help bring people together, instead of being something to be feared and locked away. Our mission is to share knowledge and stories that people can relate to, and, we hope, provide support and healing to the Good Grief community.”

The first mini-festival will take place on 28 and 29 October on the theme of ‘Grief + Memory’.

Visit goodgrieffest.com