Submit an event proposal for Festival of Debate 2025
We are once again inviting submissions from individuals, organisations and movements for change for Festival of Debate 2025, which will be the tenth year of the festival. The festival will feature our usual mix of workshops, panel discussions, performances and book events but this year we will be prioritise programming events that focus on systems change.
This means finding completely new ways of meeting human needs and tackling the many urgent problems that we face, rather than small improvements or reforms to existing systems.
In areas like housing, economics, food and energy, we want to use the festival to explore the emerging ideas and new ways of doing things that will allow us to build a more equitable Sheffield rooted in a just transition.
We want to explore how deeply entangled problems like structural racism, the housing crisis, inequality and climate breakdown intersect and reinforce each other – as well as the ways we can start to make sense of that complexity together.
We believe that the time for tinkering around the edges is over. That’s why next year’s festival will be centred around a theory of change which sees telling stories and bringing people together as essential elements in demonstrating alternative realities.
Festival of Debate 2025 will look to platform and reflect movements for change in Sheffield and elsewhere, but we will be prioritising events that explore systemic change – building new systems and new ways of being. Now is the time for new ideas with the ambition to match the scale of the problems we collectively face.
While the problems we face are serious, the ways in which we talk about them and their possible solutions don’t have to be. We’re acutely aware that the task of imagining entirely new systems and new ways of being can be a daunting one.
For next year we’re particularly keen to introduce more joy and interactivity to the programme. Things that have worked well in the past include an interactive game to explain how participatory budgeting works (as featured at this year’s festival) and a river walk and talk about nature’s right to thrive. We’re open to your creativity.
We’re unlikely to accept event proposals to our open call that mostly or entirely focus on problems or what’s wrong, without exploring in some depth the ways in which we can build new systems to tackle these problems. There is enough out there about what’s wrong – it’s time for responses.
We would like those submitting events to think carefully about the space you’re intending to create and the diversity of your speakers. This should incorporate (but is not limited to) race, gender, ethnicity, sexuality, disability and class.
We particularly welcome proposals for events that will either be hosted in, or explore issues relating to, areas of Sheffield that continue to be under-represented, especially in the north and east of the city (for example, this could be Darnall, Fir Vale or Ecclesfield).
We would also especially welcome proposals for events relating to both LGBTQ+ and disabled communities, which have been underrepresented in previous festivals. We’re keen to make that right next year. We would also like to host more events around learning difficulties and learning disabilities.
Email us if you’d like to have a chat before submitting your event proposal. We have relationships with publishers, agents, campaigners and think-tanks, and may be able to support you in bringing mid-to-high profile names to the festival.
Festival of Debate 2025 will take place from 22 April – 30 May 2025. All events must happen during this time. 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 22 November. We’ll let you know if your event has been chosen for inclusion by 2 December. If your event is included, the date for final submission of all event details will be 14 February 2025.