The Bristol Festival of Ideas is a project established in Bristol, England, which aims "to stimulate people’s minds and passions with an inspiring programme of discussion and debate". It was first set up in 2005, as part of the city's ultimately unsuccessful bid to become the European Capital of Culture for 2008, and continues to maintain a programme of debates and other events, including an annual festival each May.
The Festival also awards an annual book prize, worth £7,500, to a book which "presents new, important and challenging ideas, which is rigorously argued, and which is engaging and accessible". It is one of the largest book prizes in the UK.
The Festival takes place in a range of venues across the city, including the Arnolfini, the Watershed Media Centre, St. George's, We The Curious, City Hall, the Tobacco Factory, and the Victoria Rooms. It is organised by Bristol Creative Projects (BCP – formerly the Bristol Cultural Development Partnership), Arts Council England, Bristol City Council, and GWE BusinessWest, a private sector organisation promoting economic development in the area, and also works closely with universities in the area and other agencies. The Director of the Festival is Andrew Kelly, who was appointed Director of the Bristol Cultural Development Partnership in 1993.
the festival is a project of Bristol Ideas, which replaced BCDP in March 2021.
Events and contributors
2005
The first festival, held 16–21 May 2005, included speakers Paul Ormerod, A. C. Grayling, Julia Neuberger, Joanna Bourke, John N. Gray, Colin Tudge, Marek Kohn, Jack Cohen, Ian Stewart, John Carey, John Mortimer, Francis Spufford, Deyan Sudjic, Nick Hornby, Julian Baggini, Claudia Hammond, Dick King-Smith, Roger McGough, Brian Patten, David Crystal, Ben Crystal, and Pat Kane Kane – formerly a musician in the band Hue and Cry – was appointed as the UK's first "thinker in residence", with a remit to be "a 'constructive heckler' – identifying broad themes that emerge from the discussions, making connections between realms of knowledge ... being a 'contrarian catalyst'".
2006
The festival, from 9–25 May, was themed around the bicentenary of Isambard Kingdom Brunel. It looked at "Brunellian themes of creativity and progress and apply[ing] these to issues of contemporary concern and opportunity." Speakers included Richard Dowden, Ekow Eshun, A. C. Grayling, Christopher Hitchens, Andrew Roberts, Lola Young, Jeremy Isaacs, Geoff Dyer, Jonathan Kaplan, Andrea Levy, Tariq Ramadan, Tariq Modood, Julia Hobsbawm, Bryan Appleyard, Joan Bakewell, Tim Harford, Lewis Wolpert, Geoff Mulgan, Philip Ball, Carmen Callil, Lesley Chamberlain, Geoff Mulgan, Chris Smith, Eric Sykes, Roy Hattersley, James Lovelock, Charles Handy, Pankaj Mishra, Paul Rusesabagina, Sebastian Junger, and Margaret Atwood
2007
The 2007 festival, held 9–30 May, sought to explore "questions on the arts, Englishness, happiness and affluence, Africa, big business, spirituality, crime and justice, science and peace." Speakers included Wole Soyinka, Steve Fuller, Clive Stafford Smith, Steve Bell, John Tusa, Billy Bragg, Graham Swift, Oliver James, William Dalrymple, Paddy Ashdown, Nick Cohen, Jasper Fforde, Ziauddin Sardar, David Edgerton, and Kiran Desai. The Festival also ran a short autumn season of lectures, with Steven Pinker, A. C. Grayling, and Martin Bell. The Festival cancelled an appearance by Nobel Prize-winning scientist James Watson after controversy about his statements on race.
2008
The 2008 spring festival, 3–29 May, aimed to address "many issues including schisms in the Christian Church, the impact of globalisation, science today... fair trade and transition to a greener society, changing America, the media and truth, and what the world would be like without human beings." Speakers included John Cornwell, Julian Baggini, Alan Sokal, Harriet Lamb, Astrid Proll, Andrew Anthony, Sheila Rowbotham, Dominic Sandbrook, Peter Tatchell, Raymond Tallis, Charles Leadbeater, George Ferguson, Jon Ronson, Jean Moorcroft Wilson, Adrian Tinniswood, Andrew Mawson, Ben Macintyre, Gerry Anderson, Susan Greenfield, Nick Davies, Simon Singh, Edzard Ernst, Patrick Cockburn, Philippe Sands, Matt Frei, Naomi Klein, Alan Weisman, Kate Mosse, Gary Marcus, and John Bolton.
A series of special events were held in autumn 2008, featuring Alaa Al Aswany, Tariq Ali, Deyan Sudjic, Richard Evans, Kate Adie, Niall Ferguson, Chris Patten, Colin Blakemore, Jonathan Miller, Richard Gregory, Robert Winston, A. S. Byatt, Semir Zeki, Richard Wentworth and Paul Nurse. Other speakers during the year included John Prescott, Muhammad Yunus, and Tony Benn.