Festival Event: Marc Burrows - the Story of the Christmas No. 1 : Mistletoe and Vinyl

This is the story of a national obsession: the annual race for the festive chart crown, and what it reveals about British culture, identity, and the ever-changing music industry. From The Beatles to glam rock, from Do They Know It's Christmas? to reality-TV winners, novelty records, charity campaigns and viral streaming sensations, Marc Burrows uncovers the fascinating, funny and occasionally absurd stories behind the songs we love-and love to argue about.New for the 2026 edition: the full story of Kylie Minogue's triumphant Christmas Number 1! Released through Amazon, Kylie's gloriously camp 'XMAS' ended the recent dominance of charity singles and perennial festive classics to secure her first-ever Christmas chart-topper, becoming the first female artist to score UK.Number One singles across four different decades. But what does it tell us about hits in the streaming age, and the deals with the devil?Marc Burrows is an award-winning author, comedian and musician, currently residing in Bristol. His 2020 biography of Sir Terry Pratchett
won the Locus Award for best non-fiction and became the basis for a stand-up show that received rave reviews at the Edinburgh Fringe and
has toured extensively across the UK. His second book, The London Boys, explored 1960s London through the lives of the teenage David Bowie and Marc Bolan and received 8/10 from Classic Rock and four stars from Shindig! He writes regularly for The Independent, Big Issue, The New Statesmen and many more and is working on a new stand-up show.