Partnerships Archives - Fane Corporate

Opinion: Are Literary Festivals on their last legs?

Posted on 23 October 202423 October 2024 by Lucy Bond

Following the news of our exciting collaboration with Henley Literary Festival, our CEO Alex Fane features in The Guardian’s interesting article on the world of book festivals.

This vital discussion explores the difficulties that literary festivals face in our current climate, including rising costs and finding funding, changing reader habits, and the delicate ecosystem of the book festival.

Discussing Fane’s newly announced partnership with Henley Literary Festival, Alex Fane said: “We appreciate where we stand within the wider ecosystem of the bookselling community… When I read about all the Baille Gifford developments, I sensed an opportunity to strengthen our support through a festival partnership.”

To read the article in full, click here.

Henley Literary Festival announces Fane Group as its new headline sponsor for 2025

Posted on 9 October 202423 October 2024 by Aysha Zaheer

Henley Literary Festival has today announced The Fane Group will be its new headline sponsor for the next two years, as a part of Fane’s wider support of the arts.

Now in its 18th year, Henley is established as one of the UK’s leading book festivals. The 2024 Festival ran from 28 September and finished yesterday, with 120 events for adults and children including Michael Palin, Elif Shafak, Rob Biddulph, Jodi Picoult and Trevor McDonald.

Founded in 2017, Fane Productions has grown exponentially to become the global operation it is today, becoming a partner of choice for talent, publishers and agents in the UK and internationally. They specialise in producing and curating in-conversation events and solo tours with the most exciting names in culture and entertainment. The Fane Group is the umbrella company that consolidates Fane’s growing portfolio of corporate and consumer services including Fane UK, Fane Speakers, Fane Inc, Fane Australia, Kontour, LoveMyRead and How To Academy.

As part of Fane Group’s support, across 2025 and 2026, the festival’s flagship venue will be renamed the Fane Marquee. In addition, Fane will collaborate on two special events each year – one during the festival itself, and one within the festival’s successful, year-round series of pop-ups.

Henley Literary Festival director Harriet Reed said: “In our journey so far, we have loved working with so many different areas of the book world; publishers big and small, local authors and international bestsellers and of course, the town’s independent The Bell Bookshop. We are excited to now add Fane Group to that list, having enjoyed many of their events to date. It remains a tough time for arts sponsorship, so it was wonderful when Fane reached out to offer their support, especially as we move towards our 20th Festival and continue to create a wide range of events for our audience here in Henley, online and in schools across the country. Their support allows us to continue streaming to school children nationwide – this year we will have reached nearly 10,000 children so to know we have a secure future for things like that is brilliant.”

CEO of The Fane Group, Alex Fane said: “As long-time admirers of its programming, all of us at Fane are thrilled to be sponsoring Henley Literary Festival in 2025 and 2026. Fane would not exist without the brilliant collaborators and exciting talent we work with across the book world, and literary festivals are a vital part of that landscape. As such, it’s important to support our festival colleagues, particularly at a time when their existence is threatened. We’re excited to see what the future of this partnership holds and hugely look forward to working with the Henley team.”

Fane names Shannon Trust as new Charity Partner

Posted on 18 July 202423 October 2024 by Lucy Bond

We are delighted to name Shannon Trust as our new Charity Partner for 2024. Working across prisons in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, the registered charity helps thousands of people in prison to learn to read so that they can build a different, more positive future for themselves and their families. Through a series of programmes and resources, the charity provides people in prison with access to education, training and rehabilitative courses that will help them to address their offending, gain new skills and move into employment.

As part of Fane’s Accountability Charter for 2024, the company’s commitments include implementing a £1 donation option at point of purchase across all Fane live and online events put on sale between May and December 2024. Fane will also host a team fundraising event for the charity later this year. Staff members recently attended a virtual lunch session with Shannon Trust, learning more about the effects of educational trauma, their acclaimed ‘Turning Pages’ resources, and the charity’s story in greater depth. Internally, the team are also working closely with Shannon Trust to develop further ways to support their life-changing work.

The announcement follows the success of Fane’s existing charity partnership with War Child, established in 2022. Using the donation option, Fane customers raised a staggering £22,161 when purchasing tickets in 2022-23. Most notably, Fane hosted a successful event partnership with actor and author Stanley Tucci that raised a total of £46,000. This first live event donation led to record audience donations of over £5,950 on one night, the highest level of donations War Child has ever received at one live event. Staff members have also attended a series of webinars, live events hosted by War Child to provide our teams with greater awareness of global conflicts and information on how supporters can make a difference for children affected by conflict.

Clemmie Haynes, Producer & Culture Manager at Fane Productions, said:

“We strongly believe in the power of books and fully support Shannon Trust’s mission to empower individuals in prison through literacy. We look forward to working together to raise funds and awareness to support the rollout of their educational programs in prisons across the country, giving people in prison a greater chance to transform their lives for the better.”

Amy Longstaff, Communications and Fundraising Manager at Shannon Trust said:

“We’re thrilled that Fane Group have chosen us as their 2024 partner. Shannon Trust knows firsthand the transformative power that reading, and learning to read, can have on someone’s life. This work wouldn’t be possible without the support of partners like Fane Group. It’s great to partner with an organisation who are clearly as passionate about literacy and accessibility as we are!”