Welcome!

Herne Bay Cartoon Festival is the only regular celebration of cartooning in the South East of England. All our exhibitions and events are delivered free and are fully accessible to everyone.

Founded as part of the Marcel Duchamp Centenary Festival held in Herne Bay in 2013, it has been held annually ever since (apart from 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic).

The Festival showcases the art of cartooning with exhibitions, workshops, talks and a Cartooning Live event. 

Our objective is to present diverse new work to as wide an audience as possible. Alongside new political and non-political cartoons we also exhibit work from the British Cartoon Archive and place this in an historical context.

At previous festivals we have worked alongside Cartoon Rights Network International to exhibit and promote work by international cartoonists, many of whom suffer censorship and repression at home for their work.

Our aim every year is to demonstrate that in our changing political environment the cartoonist’s art and comment is as important and relevant as it has ever been. In 2018 we celebrated female cartoonists and illustrators in an exhibition curated for our festival and shown across two galleries and we held workshops and talks featuring artists and creators of graphic novels and comic strips. Cartooning attracts a varied audience, especially amongst those who do not normally visit galleries and with younger audiences and participants.

Local volunteers help us to deliver the Cartoon Festival each year and we rely on their support.

We work with professional artists and curators to deliver the festival.  We are supported by many local businesses as well as our local authorities, grant giving bodies and generous individuals.  We partner with many local, regional and national organisations.

Bayguide CIC and Herne Bay Cartoon Festival gratefully acknowledges support from Kent County Council’s Build Back Better grant funding in the creation of this website.