Dickens Festival | December 12 & 13, 2026

Dickens Festival 2026

For over three decades, Dickens has been closely linked to Deventer and the historic Bergkwartier district. This year marks the 34rd edition of the Dickens Festival. Over 950 characters from the English author's famous books are brought to life: from Scrooge to Oliver Twist, from Mr. Pickwick to the Christmas Carol Singers, from orphans to office clerks and posh folk. Towering Christmas trees and beautifully restored buildings provide the backdrop. The anniversary edition, which brings Charles Dickens's 19th-century English city back to life in the Bergkwartier district, takes place on Saturday, December 13th, and Sunday, December 14th. Every year, thousands of visitors from the Netherlands and abroad flock to the narrow streets of the Bergkwartier district.
More information about access, waiting times and accessibility can be found under the heading info.

Posh gentlemen on tall bicycles make their way through the narrow streets, office clerks and respectable ladies rush forward and bow deeply as Queen Victoria passes in her sedan chair. Christmas Carol Singers go door to door. Tramps beg for money, crooks steal, children sing and artisans demonstrate their craft. Merchants offer their wares: antiques and jewelry, books and art, gingerbread and cider. The smells of punch and roasted chestnuts greet you.

Encounters with famous characters from the books of Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens lived from 1812 to 1870 and is the most famous English writer of the 19th century.^e century. The world that Dickens described was mainly the world of his earliest childhood. The Dickens Festival is the opportunity to meet a large number of main characters and characters from the books of Charles Dickens.

Don't be surprised if you get yelled at by the stingy, unfriendly Ebenezer Scrooge A Christmas Carol. Do you hear a bell ringing? Then you see the ghost of his deceased partner Jacob Marley appear, announcing the arrival of the three spirits. The ghosts of the Past, Present and Future try to convince Scrooge to change his miserly nature.

A little further on sits the rich old lady Miss Havisham from the book Great Expectations exasperated in her wedding dress among all the silver waiting for her groom. This is how she spends her days and adopts girls who she teaches to break the hearts of boys. You may come across one of her victims Pip, madly in love with the arrogant Estelle.

Peek inside the home of Bob Cratchit, a poor clerk in Scrooge's office A Christmas Carol. The Cratchit family enjoys Christmas dinner with turkey, with the sickly and crippled son Tiny Tim shouting: 'God bless us, every one!'.

You may come across a touching school class with a strict teacher along the way. It looks like they're out of the book Nicolas Nickleby have stepped.
Or follow the comic adventures of the eccentric, gullible Samuel Pickwick and The Pickwick Club The Pickwick Papers.

David Copperfield strolls through the streets with his beautiful, but also naive Dora. And maybe you'll see Mr. Micawber, David Copperfield's landlord. He is goodness itself, but has a big hole in his hand.

Father Dorrit is also out Little dorrit couldn't manage money, which landed him and his entire family in prison. In the era of Charles Dickens, debtors ended up in the famous Marshalsea Prison. You will find the grim London prison at the Dickens Festival.

The widow Lady Dedlock mourns around the mysterious cemetery at the Bergkerk Bleak House at Captain Hawdon's grave, next to the gravestones of many other victims of the harsh living conditions of the 19^e century.

But there are also some strange characters roaming around the festival... Be warned about the devious Fagin Oliver Twist, a healer and instigator of many crimes in Victorian London. You will undoubtedly come across Oliver and his friends. Be careful with your bags and pockets, they are still thieves!