Festival of Debate 2025

💥BIG NEWS💥 Here's your full lineup for Festival of Debate 2025! 🎉 Join us in Sheffield for the UK's biggest politics festival, with more than 50 events exploring responses to some of the most urgent issues of our time Discover the programme ➡️ festivalofdebate.com #FofD

🚨 Traditional forms of journalism have let communities across our city down. That's why over the next few years we're looking at ways to use our platform and our skills to help build real community power - but we need your help.

📢 "Westminster didn't fix anything for us. We demanded the right to do more for ourselves." @AndyBurnhamGM speaks on the power of devolution and the future of the North of England at Festival of Debate 2025, with @MetroMayorSteve.

🌱 "There's a quiet nagging, an imperceptible whisper just out of earshot, calling us to witness our collective grief." It was an honour to have environmental justice researcher & educator @JoycelynLongdon at the festival this year, to discuss her book Natural Connection.

🚨 "What's being promised to us as a shiny new world of tomorrow is actually just recycling old forms of misogyny, and baking them into the building blocks of our future society." Laura Bates speaks on AI and misogyny at Festival of Debate 2025. @EverydaySexism

✨ Our 2025 programme is now over - thank you all so much for coming along and taking part for another year. It's such a source of hope to see people coming together to explore some of the most important issues we face. See you next year! Photos by @LaureAdva 📸

Yesterday at Soft Ground, we heard from Sheffield Community Land Trust about their plan to take our city back into common ownership, providing affordable housing and cultural spaces right in the city centre 🏘️ @CommLandTrusts

Join us at @showroomcinema tonight for a free screening of a powerful documentary exploring how Sheffield’s social enterprises are leading systemic change in response to the social, economic, and environmental challenges of our time. Free tickets ⬇️ festivalofdebate.com/2025/social-en…

Sheffield’s Poverty Truth Commission has been meeting for over a year, listening to the stories of local people and their experiences of poverty. "The system" is a theme that comes up time and time again. At our event on Thursday, we explored what it is and whether it works ⬇️

"In radical collectives we need to centre femme work, the legacy of mothers and aunties – the work of checking in, finding out how everyone feels, trying to understand how we might ourselves be being exclusionary" Mijke van der Drift exploring their book 'Trans Femme Futures' 🏳️‍⚧️

Yesterday, we workshopped how policies like retrofit can unlock dozens of co-benefits that enhance and revitalise our communities. Thanks to the Centre For @Thriving_Places 📍

Join me tomorrow I'm Sheffield to talk about the real legacy of #MalcolmX as part of the @FestOfDebate May 22nd 7pm Tickets 👇🏾

"We need to integrate logical, emotional, and moral aspects when interpreting and presenting evidence" We're learning about 'Public Research for Public Good: Closing the Health Gap', with @felly500 ⚖️ #FofD

Opus, @nowthenmag and @FestOfDebate are proud to stand beside @SheffCityofSanc & organisations across Sheffield in signing this statement, opposing the government's hostile immigration policies and calling for safety and welcome for the many diverse communities in this city.

✨ Exciting events coming up this week at Festival of Debate! This week we welcome authors @JoycelynLongdon and @kehinde_andrews to Sheffield, as well as events with partners with partners @Tribe__Arts, @SouthYorks_SC & more. 🎟️: loom.ly/IlK4lN4