{"id":50747,"date":"2024-04-16T15:30:01","date_gmt":"2024-04-16T15:30:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/?p=50747"},"modified":"2024-04-16T15:30:01","modified_gmt":"2024-04-16T15:30:01","slug":"today-marks-the-beginning-of-the-annual-festival-of-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/2024\/04\/16\/today-marks-the-beginning-of-the-annual-festival-of-debate\/","title":{"rendered":"Today marks the beginning of the annual \u201cFestival of debate\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The festival of debate is the UK\u2019s largest annual non-partisan politics festival and takes place every spring across South Yorkshire.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This year it will run from the 16th of April to the 25th May.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The events have proven popular already with many having already sold out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There will be a mix of online and in person events such as discussions, Q&amp;As, keynote speeches and performances which will be held in various locations across Sheffield and South Yorkshire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The festival\u2019s programme includes a wide variety of events led by grassroots groups, partners and individual citizens which are, according to the festival&#8217;s website:  &#8220;A reflection of these communities in South Yorkshire and broader movements for social change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p> \u201cFestival of debate seeks to create a place where we are connected to each other, to our communities, to the institutions and new ideas that shape our lives and to conversations that start change.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Festival of Debate 2022 Trailer\" width=\"1080\" height=\"608\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/bkqNW63W85Q?feature=oembed\"  allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The festival will host events classified in three main strands: Climate, democracy and inequality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It will include appearances from high profile guest speakers including Journalist author and activist George Monbiot, Poet Jackie Kay and the BBC\u2019s first disinformation and social media correspondent Marianna Spring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Many of these events are free entry, including today\u2019s event at Utopia theatre: \u201cWar! What is it good for? University Arms Trade Links\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Whilst some events are ticketed they are \u201cpriced as low as possible to encourage involvement\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>People who are interested in events from previous years can watch them&nbsp; back on the festival of debate website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Previous speakers include former Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn, who gave a speech at the University of Sheffield\u2019s Octagon venue in 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This year The Crack magazine has selected the Festival of Debate 2024 as one of their national highlights for April.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The event was founded by Opus Independent who are a not-for-profit social enterprise based in Sheffield, established in 2008.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Opus Independent also runs Now Then, a local magazine which also promotes the festival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Partners of the event include Sheffield City Council and University of Sheffield.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For more information on the programme of events visit: <a href=\"https:\/\/festivalofdebate.com\/2024\">https:\/\/festivalofdebate.com\/2024<\/a>&nbsp; or follow <a href=\"http:\/\/@FestOfDebate\">@FestOfDebate<\/a> on X (formally known as Twitter).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The festival of debate is the UK\u2019s largest annual non-partisan politics festival and takes place every spring across South Yorkshire.&nbsp; This year it will run from the 16th of April to the 25th May. The events have proven popular already with many having already sold out. There will be a mix of online and in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":70,"featured_media":50753,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[191,7,159,154,5,10,132],"tags":[437,436,435,135,12],"class_list":["post-50747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-charity","category-culture","category-education-2","category-environment-2","category-news","category-politics","category-top-stories","tag-culturalevent","tag-politicsdebate","tag-sheffieldevents","tag-sheffieldnews","tag-sheffield"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/70"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50747"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50747\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50771,"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50747\/revisions\/50771"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}