Privacy Policy

Effective date: 24 April 2026

The Bridport Literary Festival is a charity funded by its supporters and ticket sales. Our registered charity number in England and Wales is 1147075 and we are also registered as a company in England and Wales under registration number 08000525. 

We are committed to protecting your personal information and being transparent about what information we hold about you. 

Using personal information allows us to develop a better understanding of our supporters and in turn provide you with relevant and timely information about the work that we do. 

The purpose of this policy is to give you a clear explanation about how we collect and use the information we collect from you directly and from third parties. 

We use this information in accordance with all applicable laws concerning the protection of personal information. 

We may change this policy from time to time

Information Collection 

We collect and store the following information that you give us. For example, when you purchase tickets, make a donation, join our mailing list or become a Friend. 

The Bridport Tourist information Centre also passes this information on to us when you book tickets for our events through them. When you make your booking, you have the option to opt-in to receive promotional marketing for the following years events. Data collected for this purpose is shared securely and only as set out in this policy. 

Legal basis 

There are three bases under which we may process your data: 

Contract purposes 

When you make a purchase from us you are entering into a contract with us. In order to perform this contract, we need to process and store your data. For example, we may need to contact you by email or telephone in case changes are made to an event, or in case of problems with your payment. 

Legitimate business interest 

We collect and process your personal information for purposes that are in our legitimate organisational interests, for example, marketing and when you make a donation, for gift aid purposes. However, we only do this if there is no overriding prejudice to you by using your personal information in this way. The situations where we may use this basis are described below. 

With your explicit consent 

For any situations where the two bases above are not appropriate, we will instead ask for your explicit consent before using your personal information in that specific situation. 

Marketing Communications 

We aim to communicate with you about the Festival, in ways that you find relevant and timely. To do this we use data that we have stored about you, such as what events you have booked for in the past, as well as preferences you have told us about. 

We use our legitimate organisational interests as the legal basis for communications by post or email. In the case of postal mailings, you may object to receiving these at any time using the contact details at the end of this policy. In the case of email, you have the opportunity to opt out of future promotional emails by selecting a button upon checkout on the Bridport Tourist Information website. If you do not opt-out you have the option to unsubscribe in every subsequent email we send you, or alternatively you can use the contact details, at the end of this policy, to tell us your preferences. 

We use Creeds design & print, mail fulfilment service and share your contact information with them for this specific purpose only. They do not share or use your information for any other purposes. 

Other processing activities 

In addition to marketing communications, we also process personal information in the following ways that are within our legitimate organisational interest: 

• We may analyse data that we hold about you to ensure that the content and timing of communications that we send you are as relevant to you as possible. 
• We may analyse data we hold about you to identify and prevent fraud. 
• To improve our website, we may analyse information about how you use it and the content and advertisements that you interact with. 

Third parties 

There are certain circumstances under which we may disclose your personal information to third parties: 

• To our own service providers who process data on our behalf and on our instructions, currently being, The Bridport Tourist Information Centre, Electric Palace and Creeds design and print. In these cases, we require that these third parties comply strictly with our instructions and with data protection laws. 
• Where we are under duty to disclose your personal information to comply with any legal obligation (for example to government bodies and law enforcement agencies). 

Maintenance and security of your personal information 

We store your personal data for the purpose it was collected and only for four year after you have stopped expressing an interest in receiving our literature and marketing information. Certain information is stored securely on file for as long as required for legal obligations (for example Gift Aid data for HMRC). 

We will put in place appropriate safeguards (both in terms of our procedures and the technology we use) to keep your personal information secure. Please see the third party privacy policies for how they process your data (links to their websites and policies are detailed at the end of this policy). 

Your rights 

You have the right to be informed about what we do with your data. 

You have the right to request access to the information we have on you and to have any inaccuracies in this data corrected. Please contact us at the address at the end of the policy, if you want to access your information, or if there are any changes that we need to make to your personal information. 

You may request that we delete the data we hold on you at any time and if you believe that your data is not being processed for the purposes it was collected for, you may object to, or restrict the use of your information. 

You have the right to stop receiving direct marketing messages. 

Currently we only use your personal information to keep you informed about what’s happening with, and for fundraising of, the Bridport Literary Festival. 

You have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner (who is responsible for enforcing GDPR) if you are unhappy with the way we handle your personal information. 

Contact details and further information 

Please get in touch with us if you have any questions about any aspect of this privacy policy, and in particular if you have any concerns about the way we have handled your personal information, so we can address them. 

The Bridport Literary Festival 157 Orchard Crescent Bridport Dorset DT6 5HB http://www.bridlit.com/ hello@bridlit.com; Tanya Harley, Treasurer 

The Bridport Tourist Information Centre Bucky Doo Square South Street Bridport DT6 3LF https://bridportandwestbay.co.uk/ https://bridportandwestbay.co.uk/privacy-policy/ 

Creeds design & print 9c Corbin Way Gore Cross Business Park Bridport DT6 3UX http://www.creedsuk.com/ 

Buying a membership

When you buy a membership through our site, we collect some information so we can process your payment and keep in touch with you about your membership.

When you join, we’ll ask for:

• Your name.

• Billing address.

• Email address.

• Phone number (optional).

• Payment details (credit card, PayPal, etc.).

We use this information to:

• Confirm your membership and send you a receipt.

• Contact you about renewals, benefits, and events.

• Process payments and help prevent fraud.

• Meet our legal obligations (for example, tax records).

How long we keep information
We keep membership payment records for 7 years to meet tax and accounting requirements. Other information is kept only as long as we need it to manage your membership.

Who can see your information
Only authorised team members who manage memberships have access to your details. They use this information only to look after your membership and payments.

Sharing with others
We share information with trusted third parties who help us provide our membership services.

Payments
We accept payments through PayPal. When you pay, some of your data (such as the payment amount and billing information) is sent to PayPal to process the payment.
You can read their privacy policy here: PayPal Privacy Policy.

Email communications

We use Mailchimp to send our newsletters, event updates, and other emails to people who choose to subscribe.

When you sign up for our emails, we collect:

• Your name

• Your email address

• Any preferences you set (for example, topics you want to hear about)

We use this information to:

• Send you newsletters and updates you’ve signed up for

• Personalise your experience where possible

• Keep track of which emails are opened or links clicked, so we can improve future emails

You can unsubscribe or update your preferences at any time using the links in the emails we send.

Mailchimp may process your data in line with their own privacy policy. You can read it here: Mailchimp Privacy Policy.

Cookie Policy

At BridLit, we use cookies to ensure that you have the best possible experience on our website. If you continue to browse our site, we’ll assume this is OK with you.

What are cookies and why do we use them?

Cookies are small files placed on your device (computer, tablet, phone, etc.) when you visit a website. They help us:

• Keep things running smoothly—like remembering your site preferences or login choices

• Understand how the site is being used, so we can improve it over time

• Show you content or features (such as embedded videos or maps) more effectively when they’re provided by third parties

The cookies we use

We use three main types of cookies:

• Strictly necessary – needed for the website to work properly (for example, saving your cookie preferences).

• Performance & analytics – to collect anonymous data about how people use our site, helping us see what’s working and what’s not.

• Functional or third-party embeds – to enable embedded content like YouTube videos, Vimeo, Google Maps, SoundCloud, Facebook, Flickr, X, etc., as noted in our Privacy Policy.

Managing your cookies

You can control or delete cookies whenever you like—find out how through your browser settings. Note that blocking or deleting cookies may affect your experience on our site: some features might stop working as expected.

Changes to this policy

We may update this Cookie Policy from time to time. If we do, changes will be visible on this page, and the “Effective date” will reflect the latest revisions.

Need to get in touch?

If you have questions about our use of cookies or this policy, drop us a line at hello@bridlit.com or write to:

Bridport Literary Festival
157 Orchard Crescent
Bridport, Dorset DT6 5HB