Rishi Sunak Picks Byline Festival as the Right Time to Face Election
Join us from election night at the Byline Festival where we will tackle the big issues facing the new Government in mending Broken Britain, along with music, comedy, films and much more
Returning to the gorgeous surroundings of Dartington Hall, near Totnes in South Devon, this year’s Byline Festival is happening at the very birthplace of the 1945 Labour manifesto at a similarly critical time for politics in Britain.
Byline Festival originally started in 2017 – the year that Trump was inaugurated as president and a year after the EU Referendum, when the world felt unstable – as a way to bring people together to discuss issues, share ideas and also to laugh and dance. The rationale for the festival is even stronger today. It remains the only festival that wants to change the world.
Starting with a special election night event with a live Byline TV show in the medieval Great Hall and a party in the festival pub, The White Hart, the programme will follow the progress of the election and the first days of the new Government. We are grateful to Rishi Sunak for choosing the election date to coincide with the festival (if for very little else).
The Byline TV team will include Byline Times editor Hardeep Matharu, political editor Adam Bienkov, executive editor Peter Jukes and Fake History author and journalist Otto English, with special guests. They will also be broadcasting on Friday morning.
This year’s festival theme is ‘The Year of Democracy in Danger’ with half the world facing elections in 2024 and the advance of the far right in the European Elections, the French and American elections will be discussed, particularly the prospect of a second Trump term. A special panel has been convened with speakers flown especially from America to consider this, including renowned Professor of Journalism, Jay Rosen; former Ambassador, Alexandra Hall Hall and Byline Times US journalists Heidi Siegmund Cuda from LA and Matt Bernardini from Philadelphia.
The main talk programme will be officially opened by the High Sheriff of Somerset, Robert Beckley, and Lord Victor Adebowale. The opening panel will consider how the new Government can mend broken Britain and just how much needs to be mended. Subsequent panels will look at every aspect of Britain that needs fixing, with the emphasis very much on solutions rather than raking over the same old problems.
On Friday, former LBC presenter Sangita Myska will be in conversation with Hardeep Matharu about the current state of politics. Later, Byline Audio will be presenting the first live show of the Utter Bollox podcast on stage with two brain boxes Otto English and Unbound co-founder John Mitchinson pitting their wits and knowledge against an AI Bot to humorously investigate the truth behind a range of modern myths.
On Saturday, broadcaster and environmental activist Chris Packham will be in conversation with Byline Festival co-founder and punk author Stephen Colegrave, discussing how punk inspired him to become an activist. Playwright and author Bonnie Greer and Hardeep Matharu will then take us on a journey through the myths and icons that have built America in a live performance of their new podcast Americana: Travels Through America.
Of course, Saturday at Byline Festival would never be the same without the Bad Press Awards, presented this year by Jonathan Pie and Rosie Holt, ably assisted by BAFTA winning actor Joanna Scanlan; style guru Peter York and of course Otto English. Press billionaires are already getting nervous and tuning in their TVs on the tawdry super yachts ready to hear if they or their minions have won the questionable accolade of a Bad Press Award. Perhaps this will be the first year that Piers Morgan will not be graced with an award?
Sunday in the Great Hall will kick off with George Monbiot talking about his new book, The Invisible Doctrine, followed by journalist Jen Stout, associate of the Cambridge University Centre for Existential Risk, Taniel Yusef, former BBC journalist John Sweeny and Palestinian journalist Ahmed Alnaouq seeking to prevent a third world war.
The closing session will be Ahmed Anouq, who was brought up in Gaza and had 21 members of his family killed in an Israeli airstrike talking to John Mitchinson about his work as a journalist and co-founding We Are Not Numbers, publishing young Palestinian writers.
And that’s just the talk programme in the Great Hall.
Also on Friday and Saturday nights there will be bands playing on the lawn followed by DJs. The Barn Cinema will show a programme of documentaries. There will be a programme of author readings and talks curated by Unbound and Dartington Trust as well as sessions with West Country Voices along with spoken word and open mic sessions in the Round House Book Shop. On top of that there are the gardens to enjoy and the river to swim in.
Byline Festival will to be the best possible place to spend the election and the first days of the new Government.