HowTheLightGetsIn Festival is a philosophy and music festival, hosted by the Institute of Art and Ideas. It aims "to get philosophy out of the academy and into people's lives"[1] by bringing together philosophers, writers, academics, comedians and musicians for a festival of debate, talks, music, workshops, and late night parties.[2]
HowTheLightGetsIn is now hosted twice a year. In May, the festival is normally held in Hay-on-Wye, Powys, Wales at the same time as the Hay Festival,[3] HowTheLightGetsIn attracts a footfall of over 30,000 each year to its setting by the banks of the River Wye. The September festival has been held at Kenwood House in London, and has been running since 2018.[4]
In May 2020, HowTheLightGetsIn launched its first fully online festival.[5]
In September 2020, the festival held its next event: HowTheLightGetsIn Global 2020: Delhi, London, New York. This online festival included 200 events on eight stages, live streamed from Delhi, London and New York, with the aim of giving the festival global reach and making it accessible from all time zones.[6]
The Wellcome Trust[7] Identity Project presented an exhibition and two days of events on the topic of Identity. The School of Life[8] hosted a series of philosophy breakfasts with leading thinkers over the 10-day festival.
Radio 1's Huw Stephens and John Rostron, the duo behind the Sŵn Festival, curated a night of music, which was accompanied by live performances from Johnny Flynn, Cate le Bon and Radio 1's Bethan Elfyn.[9]
2011 Hay, ‘New Gods: Icons and Ideas in a Changed World’
The 2012 festival[11] was held in Hay-on-Wye and ran between 31 May and 10 June 2012. The festival staged almost five hundred sessions across the site's five venues.
London's Open Gallery, an institution dedicated to the medium of video painting, also staged a series works by filmmaker Roz Mortimer entitled, ‘Sites of Memory’.
HowTheLightGetsIn returned to the grounds of Kenwood House on the weekend of 21–22 September 2019.[24] Topics of discussion included fake news, the problematic sex appeal of the archetypal "bad boy", space exploration in the 21st century, gene editing, population control, and big data.
HowTheLightGetsIn Festival as seen from the banks of the River Wye
The 2020 May festival was HowTheLightGetsIn's first fully online festival.[5] Speakers include Paul Krugman, Daniel Kahneman, Patricia Churchland, Steven Pinker, Jess Phillips, Will Self, Sally Phillips, Shami Chakrabarti, and many more.[26] The Online Festival had over 200 events, on 7 stages, over 4 days. It contained multiple live events streamed at the same time, with audiences questions and real time comments. The festival also featured social spaces where festival-goers could meet each other as well as speakers and musicians.
2020 Global, 'Belief, Hypocrisy and Reason'
Over the weekend 19–20 September, the festival hosted its next event: HowTheLightGetsIn Global 2020: Delhi, London, New York. This online festival included 200 events live streamed from Delhi, London and New York, giving the festival global reach and making it accessible from all time zones.[6]
The events streamed on seven stages, with a line up of speakers, bands and comedy acts. In addition there were social spaces to meet other festival goers, chat to speakers and artists and enjoy live-streamed music. [citation needed]
The theme for the festival was belief, hypocrisy and reason.[27]
2023
HowTheLightGetsIn London 2023 ran from 26 to 29 May 2023 at Hay.[27]
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1 2 "HowTheLightGetsIn London 2023". Retrieved 29 May 2023. HowTheLightGetsIn Global 2020 was a melting pot of debates and talks ... The theme for the festival was Belief, Hypocrisy and Reason...
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