Just Four Weeks To Go Until Byline Festival 2025

'Nearly Early Bird' tickets are only available until 29 June, so hurry! Byline Festival Co-Founder and Executive Editor of Byline Times, Stephen Colegrave is getting excited

In just four weeks’ time, Byline Times readers and friends will be gathering at Byline Festival at Keele University to discuss, laugh, dance, inspire and be inspired.

And who knows, they might even do their bit to change the world.

The eighth Byline Festival is shaping up to be one of our most thought-provoking and fun yet. Not a conference, nor a literary, music or comedy festival, it is a vibrant weekend brimming with ideas, creativity, insights, and good will.

Where else can you work with a talented artist to create your own protest art, be part of an experiment to find the limits of AI and humanity and tackle some of today’s biggest issues? Where else can you adopt a billionaire, laugh at the best standup comics and dance the night away to a band made up of some of the best-known stars of the Eighties and Nineties, as well as discover exciting emerging musical talent?

As is our tradition and our pleasure, the festival will be opened by our favourite peer, Lord Adebowale, who will be introducing the main theme for 2025 – Defending Democracy and Truth. Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, Carol Vorderman, Carole Cadwalladr, Kate Raworth and Anthony Barnett are all taking part in keynote interviews.

Last year, the festival started a day early so we could all be part of the live Byline TV broadcast for the election. Our festival was optimistic about a new Government and an opportunity to seize another 1945 moment to rebuild fairness and a better society just as the Atlee Government did. This year, reality has set in; we are faced with Trump and the tech bros dragging America into unknown territory as an authoritarian oligarchy, while closer to home, Nigel Farage is leading probably the strongest far right threat Britain has faced in a generation.

Against this background, Byline Festival is determined to be optimistic – though never naïve; to concentrate on solutions and new insights rather than retread the same problems. Of course, the participation of our festivalgoers is vital too.

Our talk programme will not shirk from grappling with the big challenges, whether it be James Bloodworth and Nazir Afzal working out how to stop young men going down the rabbit hole into the manosphere, or Carole Cadwalladr, Dawn Butler MP, Naz Shah MP, Hardeep Matharu and Heidi Cuda discussing what it’s like to be women on the frontline of the Information War, or Robbie Stamp and his AI Goose Bumps Club exploring the boundaries of AI and where it leaves humanity.

There are also some fascinating author sessions including Mike Berners Lee with his book A Climate of Truth, which exposes all those organisations that are blocking climate improvement including much of the press, and local novelist Lisa Blower’s 100 Writers from the Potteries project finding lost voices from the area, many of whom were women.

The environmental theme is also taken up by a panel that asks ‘Why is the UK So Crap at Looking After Biodiversity?’ and Kate Raworth is bringing her Doughnut Economics, an economic model which looks after the planet and humanity – unlike late-stage capitalism’s approach – to the festival in the Doughnut Economic Circus.

This year’s Bad Press Awards with Rosie Holt, Peter York and John Mitchinson are likely to be even more vitriolic than in previous years and just as funny – this cross between the Oscars and The Bad Sex awards always has billionaire press magnates on the hop.

This year, we are determined to find light in the dark. Our panels will seek new insights and solutions. Byline Festival should be, and is, an uplifting experience.

Music is a bigger part of this year’s festival than ever before. This year’s music line up is headlined by brilliant Merseyside band The Farm who had the number one album, Spartacus in the 1990s, containing hits like ‘Altogether Now’ and ‘Groovy Train’.

This year, we’ve also put together a special All Stars Festival Rock ‘n Roll band that are determined to get you dancing. The band consists of Neal X from 1980s futuristic New Wave band Sigue Sigue Sputnik, Phil Polecat from punk rockabilly band, The Polecats and Stephen ‘Vom’ Ritchie, formerly of Doctor and the Medics and drummer of Toten Hosen, Germany’s best-known punk band.

And we have some young bands too. Ruby J is just 20 and breaking through to be a big star, and indie rock band The Names are the coolest band on the bill.

Comedy is another highlight this year. The first night, the Hook Up Culture Jazz Comedy Cabaret is exploring the humour around online dating. The next night, the team behind the regular ‘Live Next To The Apollo’ shows at the Riverside Studios are bringing the best stand up night, ‘Live (Quite Far) From The Apollo’ with Mark Thomas and friends to the Squirrel venue at the Festival.

Byline Festival isn’t all about sitting and listening – we like you to get fully involved. Whether it is asking questions, dancing, laughing, making new friends or getting hands-on in one of our festival workshops where you can create your own protest art, write a protest poem or draw a political cartoon with legendary political cartoonist Martin Rowson.

And there are films, art, DJs in the festival garden, poets and singer songwriters in the Festival Café, scrumptious food, bars and much more,

Byline Festival is shaping up to be a fabulous weekend and we would love you to join us.

For the complete programme and to get ‘Nearly Early Bird’ tickets before they go up to full price on 29 June, click here.