Ten wonderful days of celebrating all things Austen in the beautiful city of Bath

Friday 30th January 2026

January 2026, Newsletter

To our dear fellow Austen-fans, far and wide…

The dark days of January (the month in which Marianne gets chucked by Willoughby, Jane Bennet doesn’t get to see Bingley in London and Frank Churchill once again fails to rock up in Hartfield) are nearly over. Huzzah!

To warm your hearts and get you through the final few chilly days, we have the most frightfully exciting news to reveal… the schedule of ball and dance events for the 2026 Jane Austen Festival.

We’re sure the question on everyone’s lips is “When will tickets go on sale?”. Alas, we are not yet in a position to confirm the date when tickets will go on sale, however we are going to be holding two separate ticket-drops for Festival tickets this year: one for balls and tea dances, and a later one for everything else.

The dates will be announced via our newsletter, so- dear reader-  if you are reading this, you are clearly attentive to the newsletters and are already doing everything you can to secure knowledge of the awaited date!

That’s not all we are revealing today though; you are being granted not one but two glimpses behind the black veil into the goings on at Jane Austen Festival HQ…

Some of you may remember that, following the 2025 Festival, we were on a quest against the odds- truly worthy of the most gothic 19th-century literature heroines on a windswept moor- to track down one or two of the thousands of beautiful individuals in some of the stunning images captured by our festival photographs. Our grateful thanks go to everyone who helped us in our quest; we were finally (through perseverance, hope and the magic of the internet) united with the gorgeous couple below, who are starring in our 2026 cover image:

This image was taken at the beginning of our biggest ever Promenade, when we welcomed 2000 elegantly attired Austen-lovers and Regency-fans onto the Royal Crescent Lawn, and- above all- it didn’t rain! The Jane Austen Festival team couldn’t think of a more splendid image to take with us into 2026.

If you’re marvelling at the beautiful costumes on our front cover, and considering what your own outfit choices will be at the 2026 Jane Austen Festival, know that we will be updating our costuming page soon!

We don’t currently have any recommended costume-sellers, so if you are the owner of a Regency costume business, and would like to advertise with the Jane Austen Festival, do get in contact with us ([email protected]) to find out more about how to make this happen!

Wishing you a bearable final few days of January, and a love-filled February,

The Jane Austen Festival Team
Bath, UK