13th – 15th February 2026: The Halifax Goth Festival returns with The Grayston Unity
Thank you to everyone who supported Halifax’s second Goth Festival.
A Bloody Valentine: Doomed Love in the Gothic Tradition
Friday 13th Feb, 6pm in The Book Corner. £6 / £5.
Forget hearts and flowers this Valentine’s: on Friday the 13th, join us as we step into the shadows and the dark side of love.
A Bloody Valentine delves into the twisted passions and tragic romances at the heart of Gothic storytelling. Gothic authors and experts, Claire O’Callaghan and Michael Stewart, wander through the shadowy corridors of Gothic fiction and history alike, uncovering why doomed love remains so irresistibly seductive. Expect tales of desire turned deadly, devotion turned delusion, and figures who are truly ‘mad, bad, and dangerous to know.’
Come for the heartbreak, stay for the horror—sometimes, love is the most terrifying story of all.
Dr Michael Stewart is the author of nine books, including four Gothic influenced novels: King Crow; Café Assassin; Ill Will: The Untold Story of Heathcliff; and Black Wood Women. He is also the creator of the Brontë Stones project, four monumental stones situated in the landscape between the birthplace and the parsonage, inscribed with poems by Kate Bush, Carol Ann Duffy, Jeannette Winterson and Jackie Kay. He is the director of the Brontë Writing Centre.
Dr Claire O’Callaghan is the author of Emily Brontë Reappraised, the most up-to-date biography of the enigmatic writer. She has written extensively about Gothic Literature and is an expert on the lives and works of the Brontës and in the writing of the contemporary historical novelist, Sarah Waters, an author known and celebrated for her delightfully haunting texts. She is also the editor-in-chief of Brontë Studies: the foremost academic journal on the lives and works of the Brontë family.
Tickets available in-store or on Eventbrite.
Lynchian: the Spell of David Lynch
Saturday 14th Feb, 2pm at The Grayston Unity. £5
Join John Higgs in conversation with Michael Stewart to unpack the strange and seductive world of David Lynch.
The loss of David Lynch in January 2025 produced an extraordinary outpouring of love and grief that revealed how deeply he mattered. But the strength and size of this reaction came as a surprise to many. In life, Lynch was a wilfully obtuse cult filmmaker who had been unable to get a film financed for the last two decades of his life. In death, both the man himself and his work are unquestionably in the pantheon of all-time greats.
He leaves behind an adjective, ‘Lynchian’, a term used to describe work that echoes his. And yet, only Lynch could be truly Lynchian, and those who copy him fail to have an impact. So why does his work affect people so deeply? Why do some find it haunting and unforgettable while others dismiss it as meaningless? Answering that question takes us into the strange realms of psychology, art and theology. We will discover why ambiguity and mystery are so seductive and how Lynch’s creative and meditative practices overlapped.
John Higgs is the author of Lynchian, Exterminate/Regenerate, I Have America Surrounded, The KLF, Stranger Than We Can Imagine, Watling Street, The Future Starts Here, William Blake Now, William Blake VS The World and Love and Let Die. He lives in Brighton.
Dr Michael Stewart is the author of nine books, including four Gothic influenced novels: King Crow; Café Assassin; Ill Will: The Untold Story of Heathcliff; and Black Wood Women. He is also the creator of the Brontë Stones project, four monumental stones situated in the landscape between the birthplace and the parsonage. He is the director of the Brontë Writing Centre.
Tickets available at The Grayston Unity bar or on SeeTickets.
Full festival info online: https://thegraystonunity.co.uk/event/goth-festival-2/
