Folkestone Illustration Festival

The Folkestone Illustration Festival returns to Folkestone on 30th October to 1st November 2026. The festival had its first outing in 2025, and was well received.  With workshops ranging from making your own greetings card to publishing your first graphic novel, the list of speakers is very impressive. Organisers Jenny Davis and Tom Bradshaw met with Folkelife to talk about the festival and its aims.

Jenny: “I’m originally from Huddersfield, but have worked my way down the country until I hit water.  I am an illustrator, but have various different roles I offer to commercial clients and community non-profit clients.  Sheena Dempsey and I are currently working on a project together.  She’s the author and illustrator of Pablo and Splash, and will also be speaking at our festival.  I do non-profit work at The Folkestone Bookshop, running the Funshine Club, an illustration club.”

Tom: “I moved to Folkestone for work, initially with Cognitive, a business based on Tontine Street.  I worked for them for five years before taking the leap into the world of freelance.  My expertise is scribing, which is a visual capture of a conversation or conference.  It can be as big a subject or small as you like, but it needs to reflect the experience that participants have had.  It’s my bread and butter, and I work a lot with sports businesses – the Football Association and the English Cricket Board and so on.”

illustration work in folkestone

Jenny: “For me, moving to Folkestone has enabled me to be a freelance illustrator and creator.  The terrain in London is very risky; prices are high, rent is difficult and there are a lot of people competing for the same work.  Here, the pace is slower, the space feels bigger to be able to share the different skills that are on offer in the town. I made good connections last year with those who came to the festival.  The big creative agencies are in London, but those who work for them are down here, so it’s good to talk!”

Tom: “The festival came about last year from Katie at Kollectiv getting together a group of illustrators to see if we could put something on. And the festival is needed because illustration is a discipline that can cross over so many genres – we have the Triennial, the Book Festival, the Documentary Festival and illustration can play a part in all of those.  So to have our own festival, we can show the versatility of this art form, and how and where people can find jobs.” 

the importance of the festival

Tom: “I feel the importance of the festival is to help people network with the contacts we have here in Folkestone, and there are many more who will travel here to network too.  The workshops we have planned are useful for anyone wanting to practice their skills, even if this is just a hobby.  Also, any freelancer will tell you, promoting yourself is hard!  Doing your own socials is another full-time job, and so being able to meet new people in festivals like this is so important.

“It’s also equally important for us to enable young illustrators to connect, learn and understand the industry. And our workshops are here to do that too. The economy is tough right now, and you might feel that working in the creative industries is not possible, but nothing is possible if you can’t see it working.  So we want to show how it can work, how people can make a living in illustration across many creative industries.”

Jenny: “We’re showing publishing, animation, sign painting, tattooing… there are so many industries to get into.  Our first session is about how to build your portfolio so you can show yourself off to the world. There are kids workshops; Aaron Fletcher is here to show how to create your own monster.  Aaron has a graphic novel out called Monster Doctor.  There are other sessions on graphic novels too, on how to self-publish vs getting a publisher, and how to layout your novel. “

introduction to sign painting

Jenny: “I feel that sign painting, at the moment, is an incredibly tangible artform. We’re going through a bit of a handmade renaissance at the moment, which is wonderful, and very exciting.  It’s good to have this on board. There’s a talk on building your career as an animator with Esther Ajibade.  I used to work with her at Cognitive, and now she has built such an amazing career, she’s really interesting to listen to.”

Tom: “Then we have the Big Draw Off with Dyke Skinner, who is a local comedian and drag artists.  This is where we have to draw cartoon characters from memory.  Last year we were drawing the Pink Panther and I know I know what he looks like, but in the moment, you realise that you can’t actually remember!  It’s a lot of fun.  And it’s in front of a fun audience too, so that’s a good evening.”

Socialising

Tom: “It’s important to remember, when you work by yourself, you do have to make time to socialise.  It can fall off the list of things to do sometimes.  So we’ve added socialising sessions here too, and the party could go on until late into the evening if everyone is up for it!  Which means we’re back to the networking again.  It’s good to socialise with people you could work with, and new ideas and opportunities come from this.”

Jenny: “We have a festival pass for anyone who wants to spend the whole weekend with us, and make it more financially affordable. And you can sponsor us too, and that helps us put on more free events so that people can drop in to the huge variety we have on over the weekend.”