Hello and big thanks for your interest in being part of Festival of Debate 2024. Entering its 10th season, this festival of people, places & communities could not happen without you, and as the need to join together and collectively face the entangled challenges of the polycrisis becomes absolutely essential, so does the need to create space for meeting, talking, and imagining alternative futures.

Festival of Debate’s 2024 programme will be shaped by a theory of change which sees telling stories and bringing people together as essential elements in demonstrating alternative realities.

The 2024 festival will comprise a smaller number of events than in previous years, and those events will be provided with a greater level of support and development from our team. We are especially interested in events which bring together multiple partners, engage directly with communities in creative ways, and which seek to explore key social, environmental, economic and political issues through a future-looking and proactive lens. 

Festival of Debate has previously welcomed event submissions that have explored a huge range of issues. This year we are changing the criteria to prioritise events placed in the context of exploring either radical reform of existing systems, or systemic change - building new systems and new ways of being. 

Events which seek only to 'name the problem' or reform existing systems will be looked upon less favourably than events focused on radical reform or systemic change. We realise that there are grey areas between these categorisations and we are still open to hearing from event partners who have artistic responses to systemic issues, and those that seek to simply bring communities together to increase their capacity to share information and make decisions.

Please get in touch if you’d like to have a chat before submitting your event proposal by emailing hello@festivalofdebate.com. We have pre-existing relationships with publishers, agents, campaigners, activists and think-tanks. We can support you in bringing mid-high profile names to the festival. You should think carefully about the space you are creating and the diversity of your speakers / acts.

Festival of Debate 2024 will take place from 16th April - 25th May. All events must happen during this timeframe. Please familiarise yourself with this guide, which outlines how Festival of Debate works with partner organisations.

This submission form is for individuals, groups and organisations to propose events for the 2024 programme. Your event proposal will then be assessed by the Festival of Debate team. You do not need to have dates confirmed, or venues or speakers booked, but please provide us with as much information as you can. 

The deadline for event submission is Friday 8th December 2023. We will let you know if your event has been chosen for inclusion in the 2024 programme by Monday 18th December 2023. If your event is included, the date for final submission of all event details will be Friday 16th February 2024.

Glossary

- Polycrisis: the simultaneous and overlapping crises currently facing the world.

- Theory of Change: a process for thinking about and describing the change we want to see and our plans for achieving that change.

- Systemic Change: confronting root causes of issues, rather than symptoms, by transforming structures, customs, mindsets, power dynamics and policies, and by strengthening collective power through the active collaboration of diverse people and organisations.