RARE London 2027 Has Been Canceled After Mass Author Withdrawals
RARE London 2027 has officially been canceled.
The Romance Author & Reader Events signing was scheduled for July 17, 2027, at Olympia London. But after days of widespread author withdrawals, reader concern, and mounting calls for refunds, organizers announced on October 17 that the event will no longer go ahead.
This is a major update from our earlier coverage of the situation, when authors were still announcing their individual decisions to leave the event and RARE had not confirmed whether London would continue in a smaller form or be canceled entirely.
What RARE has said about the cancellation
In its cancellation announcement, RARE said that full ticket refunds will be issued. The organizers attributed the delay in making the announcement to restrictions on their PayPal account and ongoing communication with Olympia London regarding the venue contract.
RARE stated that ticket refunds would be processed as soon as the necessary funds were available, with its stated goal of completing them by the end of the following week or sooner. PayPal may then take an additional three to five days to post the refund.
The organization also said:
- Refunds will go back to the original ticket purchaser.
- Ticket holders whose PayPal claims were denied should still be refunded manually.
- Readers who purchased a ticket secondhand will need to contact the original buyer rather than RARE directly.
At the time of writing, the public statement focused on attendee tickets. It did not clearly explain the refund process for authors, vendors, narrators, or other professionals who may have paid fees connected to the event.
How did RARE London get here?
The cancellations began after RARE’s public response to Crave: Chapter One, a new LGBTQIA+ romance event planned for Melbourne in 2028.
Crave described itself as a queer-romance-focused signing. RARE, which has also promoted a Melbourne event for 2028, publicly challenged Crave’s language and the possibility of overlap between the events. The exchange spread rapidly through romance-reader and author spaces online.
Many authors and readers felt RARE’s response to a new queer-focused event was unnecessarily hostile. Authors began withdrawing from RARE London 2027 in solidarity, including major names in romance. As the withdrawal list grew, it became increasingly difficult to view the London event as the same event readers had originally bought tickets to attend.
The issue was never merely that events might happen in the same city or around the same time. It was about community, inclusion, and whether a new event created specifically for queer romance readers and authors should have been met with support rather than public conflict.
What ticket holders should do now
If you bought a ticket to RARE London 2027, keep an eye on the payment method you used and on any communication from RARE or Eventbrite.
If your refund does not arrive within the timeline RARE gave, save your ticket confirmation, purchase receipt, cancellation announcement, and any refund correspondence. If you paid through PayPal, you may also want to check the status of any existing claim directly through your account.
If you bought a ticket specifically to meet particular authors, it may also be worth following those authors’ newsletters and social media. Several have said that they still hope to visit London in 2027 or are exploring other ways to connect with readers.
A difficult ending — and an opportunity for something better
RARE London’s cancellation is disappointing for the readers, authors, vendors, and volunteers who invested money, time, and excitement into the event. It is especially frustrating for anyone now waiting for money to be returned.
But it has also made something clear: romance readers pay attention to how authors, organizers, and communities treat one another. Queer readers and writers are not an afterthought in this genre, and events that want the romance community’s support need to act accordingly.
There are already conversations around alternative events, author meetups, and queer-inclusive romance spaces in the UK. The end of RARE London does not have to mean fewer places for romance readers to gather. It can be a chance to build something more welcoming, transparent, and genuinely community-minded.
Sources
RARE London 2027 Officially Cancelled Following Author Boycott – Book Notification
RARE London 2027 Eventbrite listing