DATA PROTECTION, PRIVACY AND PHOTOGRAPHY POLICY
Sevenoaks Literary Festival (“the Festival”) organises and promotes a literary festival held each year within Sevenoaks. The Festival consists of talks by published authors and an annual free schools’ event for local state primary schools.
The Festival is run by a Committee of volunteers, with additional volunteers at the time of the Festival. It has no paid employees. The Committee works closely with Sevenoaks Bookshop.
In the context of data protection the Festival is a data controller within the UK.
The personal information referred to in this policy may include name, contact details, and such other information as may be necessary for pursuing the legitimate interests of the Festival in support of its activities.
The Festival collects and holds personal information about:
1. The “Friends” of the Festival (addresses, telephone numbers and email addresses).
This information is used to inform the Friends about the Festival, to inform them by email of the date when tickets go on sale, to process ticket orders and to provide reports of the Festival. The Friends’ personal data is recorded in a file held by MailChimp, our third-party email client. The log-in details of this file, its user name and its password are known only to two members of the organising committee. All email communications with Friends via MailChimp incorporate an opt-out option to enable any Friend to have their details removed from the file.
2. Purchasers of Festival tickets (addresses, telephone numbers and email addresses).
This information is used to process ticket orders and to contact purchasers about the arrangements for events they are attending. Purchasers need to provide an email address for e-tickets and a postal address for tickets by post but provision of other data is optional. Their personal data is recorded in a file held by TicketSource, our third-party box office agent. The log-in details of the TicketSource website are personal to each user and only two members of the organising committee are signed up to the website. Purchasers using Ticketsource must opt in to receive receive updates from the Festival about their products, services and future events.
3. Members of the Committee and volunteers (addresses (where applicable), telephone numbers and email addresses).
All members of the committee are on an email group and a WhatsApp group. Addresses are only held as necessary. No information about the Committee is included on the Festival’s website other than in the form of an occasional photograph of their involvement in the Festival’s events.
Volunteer data is held by the volunteer co-ordinator and only used for communication in relation to volunteering.
4. Speakers and other participants in the Festival and their publishers and literary agents (where applicable).
This data includes contact details (name, address, telephone, email address) and, on occasion, financial details to enable payment of presenters’ fees and expenses. This information is used to arrange and confirm services. The data may be retained for follow-up contact purposes.
Photographs of the participants are taken during their appearance at the Festival with their permission and used on the Festival website, social media and other publicity materials.
5. Those responsible for managing the venues used by the Festival
This data includes the institutional addresses and email addresses and personal telephone numbers of those responsible for managing the venues. This information is used to arrange and confirm services. The data may be retained for follow-up contact purposes and for making future bookings.
6. Contact details of the various sponsors of the Festival and others who support the Festival in the provision of services.
This information is used to arrange and confirm services. The data may be retained for follow-up contact purposes and for booking services in the future.
This data is collected by direct contact and, for customers, via contact with the Festival box office. The data is held securely within the Festival’s database and in the secure databases held by the Festival’s third-party box office agent TicketSource and email client MailChimp.
With the necessary exception of TicketSource and MailChimp, this data is not shared with any third parties other than via the Festival’s own use of names and photographs of presenters in its publicity materials.
The privacy policy of MailChimp may be accessed here.
The privacy policy of TicketSource may be accessed here.
The Festival may retain historical archives including, but not limited to, records of meetings and the names of presenters and the titles of their presentations. This data may remain on the Festival’s website where it may be used for information and research by the Festival and by members of the public as well as for providing summaries and accounts of the Festival for inclusion on the website and in communications with Friends as well as on the Festival’s social media feeds.
From time to time the Festival may use data in aggregate form to monitor attendance at its various events and over recent years. This information cannot be linked to individual users.
Nothing in the foregoing prevents members of the Committee, volunteers, Friends or presenters from sharing their personal contact details and information about the Festival with each other.
The Festival’s website does incorporate cookies, but these are not used for processing data.
You have the right to:
1. apply to the Festival via the dedicated email address available on the website and annual brochure[info@sevlitfest.com] or by personal contact with any member of the Committee to verify the information held by the Festival about you;
2. ask that Sevenoaks Literary Festival corrects any personal data if it is found to be inaccurate or out of date;
3. ask that your personal data is erased where it is no longer necessary for Sevenoaks Literary Festival to retain it;
4. lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office.
PHOTOGRAPHY POLICY
Some events may be filmed and we may have a photographer taking pictures for marketing purposes, including use on social media. We try to take long shots rather than close ups of the audience. By buying a ticket you are giving your consent to being filmed or photographed. Please let a member of the Festival team know if you do not wish to be filmed or photographed. Please refer to our Safeguarding Policy in respect of photographing children.
Sevenoaks Literary Festival does not allow filming of video footage on cameras or phones at any of our events without prior permission from the organisers. Filming any event or any part of our events without prior permission from the organisers is a breach of the contractual agreements the festival has with authors and is strictly not permitted.
This policy may be updated from time to time to reflect changes in the way the Festival operates but will in any event be reviewed annually by the committee.
21 January 2026