The New Statesman is delighted to be a media partner for this year’s HowTheLightGetsIn festival in Hay-on-Wye. HTLGI is, in the organisers’ description, “the world’s largest philosophy and music festival”. This year’s feast of big ideas in the Welsh borders begins on Thursday 31 May and runs until Sunday 10 June.
Hilary Lawson, the festival director, says:
I little imagined five years ago when we held our first debate in a converted Methodist chapel in Hay-on-Wye that HowTheLightGetsIn would become the largest philosophy and music festival in the world. Five years on, we’re back with a full programme of over 450 events across ten days and expecting over 35,000 visitors. The intention was always to take philosophy out of the academy and into people’s lives, to encourage real dialogue about issues that matter and to invite leading thinkers with new ideas to share, rather than celebrities looking to plug their latest book. It’s great to see this in action on the festival site and to watch our digital audience grow via iai.tv, where we post all of our debates, solo talks and live performances.
The range of speakers is too vast to summarise here, but highlights include: Jim Al-Khalili on chaos theory; Mary Midgley and Ruth Padel on poetic theories; David Aaronovitch and David Blunkett on the ends of ideals; James Lovelock on freedom of scientific speech; Raymond Tallis on music and neuroscience; Galen Strawson on the mind; Barry C Smith’s philosophical wine-tasting; Steven Pinker on the decline of violence; and Peter Singer on humans and animals.
On Friday 1 June, New Statesman culture editor Jonathan Derbyshire will chair a session entitled “Uncharted Territory: Progress for a new era”, with Giles Fraser, Hilary Rose, Bjorn Lomborg and Ziauddin Sardar. The following day, at 12pm, Jonathan will debate the ramifications of Stephen Hawking’s recent declaration that philosophy is dead with Lewis Wolpert and Steve Fuller. In the afternoon, he will chair a debate on the “rationality of climate change” with Nigel Lawson, Bjorn Lomborg, Polly Higgins and Barry C Smith.
To see the full programme and to book tickets, click here.
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