Festival of Archaeology (CBA): an online or walk event for the Roman villa story, July 2027

Topic: the Council for British Archaeology's yearly UK festival, a fortnight in late July. Organisers register free events (guided walks, talks, digital activities) and get the festival's branding, toolkits and promotion. Checked 29 Oct 2026: 'festival of archaeology' and 'CBA' were in no skill file. The nearest existing ones are heritage-talks-circuit and free-online-talk-listings, which cover other circuits.

What the sources show (read 29 Oct 2026)

• archaeologyuk.org, "The Festival of Archaeology returns for 2026!" "Last year's Festival" (2025, 19 Jul-3 Aug) achieved:
• 479 events delivered;
• 123,754 attendees;
• 250 organisations involved;
• 64,381,381 digital reach during the fortnight and 101,441,273 across the wider campaign;
• 16% of participants engaging with archaeology for the first time.
• These are the festival's own figures, not checked independently.
• What organisers get, in its words: "When you register as an organiser, you'll gain access to branding, toolkits, guidance, and promotional support." Accepted event types include "guided walk, talk, excavation open day, creative workshop, or digital activity".
• 2026 also had online "This is Archaeology" lectures and free online organiser support sessions (for example 13 May 2026).
• **archaeologyuk.org
• 2026 ran 18 Jul-2 Aug on the theme "Archaeology and Nature", with "over 500 events".
• For 2027: "interested in organising an event in 2027 please sign up for our newsletters ... check out the event organisers area". You must create a login to reach the Organisers Area.
• Partners listed include Cadw, the National Trust, English Heritage and European Archaeology Days.
• 2027 dates are not yet announced by the CBA. nationaltoday.com guesses 17 Jul-1 Aug 2027, but that is not official, so wait for the CBA.
• Timeline seen in 2026: themes and dates were announced around Feb/Mar, submissions were open by spring, and support sessions ran in May.

How to do it

1. Create the organiser login now and sign up to the CBA newsletter, so the 2027 theme and the submission opening are not missed. Use the project mailbox, not a personal address.
2. Pick a format you can deliver for free: - a digital activity (an online talk or a self-guided story map) is cheapest and reaches the UK-wide audience; - a guided walk needs a public route, risk assessment and insurance, and goes through the walk accreditation gate (visit-wales-tpd-listing-walk-accreditation-gate.md).
3. Fit the year's theme in the title and the first line. The listing is a discovery page, so name the place and the period ("Roman to Tudor: a farm in the Vale of Glamorgan").
4. List on the festival map and in our own channels. Give a free registration link and one next step after the event (the free sample or newsletter). Never push a sale in the event itself.
5. Measure: registrations from the festival listing (UTM utm_source=cba-festival), attendees, signups in the week after, and any sales within 14 days.

How we apply it to Cedwyn

• The story fits: the Llandough Roman villa next to the farm was excavated in 1977-79, and the s-roman-villa-to-1988 Short already exists. Telling a "landscape through time" story from the records suits the festival's audience: first-timers, families and local-history readers.
• Proposal, not yet a commitment. A new public event and channel is the owner's GO under the growth rules. Add it to the project workspace as: "Festival of Archaeology 2027: free online talk (+ optional walk if accredited by then); register organiser login; submissions open ~spring 2027".
• Free no-GO prep now: 1. note the CBA newsletter sign-up as a task; 2. in Feb 2027, check archaeologyuk.org for dates and theme.
• Content rules:
• no assertions about the court case in festival material, which is heritage only;
• public text never names the owner;
• banned words apply;
• no insignia;
• nothing about family holdings or addresses.
• Link the work: if the online talk circuit is already running by then (heritage-talks-circuit-aatp-branches.md, free-online-talk-listings-eventbrite-meetup.md), reuse the same talk and register it as the festival's digital activity, so it costs nothing extra.

Sources

• archaeologyuk.org (read 29 Oct 2026; festival's own 2025 figures)
• archaeologyuk.org (read 29 Oct 2026)
• nationaltrust.org.uk (snippet: 18 Jul-2 Aug 2026)
• nationaltoday.com (snippet; 2027 guess, not official)

Raw Markdown: festival-of-archaeology-cba-roman-villa-event-2027.md · version and changes: changelog · machine index: agents.json