YOU DON’T LOOK A DAY OVER 250 …
Its only fair to say that it happened in Hampshire, but 250 years ago (on December 16th) Jane Austen was born, which makes this year’s Jane Austen Festival a special and singular event.
2025’s 250th anniversary version of the annual celebration of all things Austen is running from Friday 12th to Sunday 21st September 2025. Obviously, if you know, you know, and you’ll need no outlining or describing from us at this point (and you’ll doubtless have your tickets booked and your costumes aired, repaired and de-fluffed).
For those less inclined to queue for early-bird tickets and more likely to mooch along out of curiosity, you should know the Festival has been going since 2001 and it offers the opportunity to cautiously sample or utterly sink into a celebration of Bath’s Austen, Regency and Georgian heritage.
You can expect themed city tours (on foot or by carriage), soirees, readings and discussions, as well as processions, parades and workshops in Regency dancing and hair-management. Many of these things you’ll find listed as daily events on the Festival website, while others – the grander, big-ticket affairs – are in great demand and sell out sooner.
This year’s versions of these include a ball (specifically, a pink-themed, Regency Rose Ball), at the Pump Rooms on Wednesday 17th September, as well as a Regency Soiree & Pump Rooms Ball on Friday 19th September (whose theme is Celestial, costume-fans).
If this seems like a lot of fuss to be making about a writer who – if you look at bare dates only – lived in Bath for just five years, here’s a potted context: two of her novels (Persuasion & Northanger Abbey) are based here, the rest mention the city as it was a popular and fashionable destination for any character looking for love, company, gossip, or therapeutic waters-taking.
And Jane’s connection with Bath is deeper than just five years living here. Before moving here herself she’d visited several times (it was where her parents were married) and stayed with an aunt and uncle.
Once a resident, Jane – like Catherine Morland in Northanger Abbey – relished all that Bath had to offer, from its balls, concerts and surrounding countryside, to Sydney Gardens, The Pump Room and The Assembly Rooms (currently closed for renovations).
Bath’s Jane Austen Centre itself does a good job of bringing to life some of those Austen-era traditions and rituals, such as Afternoon Tea, for example. Its ‘Mr. Darcy’s Afternoon Tea’ features, in its own words, “a decadent and delicious serving of exquisite cakes, divine finger sandwiches and delightful warm scones served with Dorset clotted cream and seasonal jam”.
Of course, if you’re familiar with Austen but less clued-up about Bath, then perhaps some of the other pages here might help you bridge the fact-gap, but if vice versa is the case and you know more about Bath than Jane, then now could be the perfect time to top up your Austen. And we can certainly help with that; our Jane Austen Experience offer includes breakfast, two tickets to the Jane Austen centre as well as a 250th anniversary tote bag.
As the great woman herself wrote: “Oh! Who can be ever tired of Bath?”
