The Target: Good Grief Festival aims to normalise conversations about grief, bringing knowledge and research to the public and offering community, solace and support to bereaved people. A one day festival costs approximately £15,000 to produce. Any funds donated will help us to continue this vital work.

We rely on charitable funds and academic grants to support the costs of Good Grief Festival events, from the staff who produce our online events and our YouTube Channel to funding for contributors and the technology platforms we use to deliver our events. All our events are free to access, as we want to reduce barriers to people accessing knowledge and support. Donations to support Good Grief Festival are greatly appreciated and help to reduce our reliance on the charities that help to fund us.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity. So it’s the most efficient way to donate – saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

The Problem: Each year in the UK, over 3 million people are bereaved. Yet as a society we continue to struggle with talking about death and grief: in 2022, 32% of UK adults said they didn’t know how to start a conversation after a bereavement, and 60% of bereaved people reported that their community had not helped them deal with their grief. The problems faced by bereaved people include others not mentioning or not wanting to discuss their loss – often because they are scared of saying the wrong thing – which can be really isolating.

After a bereavement, many people ask themselves, ‘Is this normal?’ Grief can make you feel so many unexpected things – from a lack of confidence, to anger and guilt – yet these complexities are not often discussed, as if grief itself is something to be ashamed of.

Finally, while bereavement support services and counselling can be really helpful in bereavement, there can be long waits for support and not everyone can afford to access private services. We also know that access to support is not equitable, with specific minoritized groups experiencing additional barriers accessing the support they need.

Good Grief Festival aims to tackle some of these problems. The festival was launched in October 2020 to widen access to knowledge about bereavement and build a community of like-minded people. The festival is run by a small team at the University of Bristol, based in the departments of Population Health Sciences and English Literature, working with collaborators outside the university.

You can also support us with a gift in your Will. By including a gift to the University of Bristol to support our work on Grief and Bereavement, you can help further work in this vital area: https://www.bristol.ac.uk/alumni/donate/gift-in-will/