[title]
If you’ve become a bit boneheaded over the last year and a half, that’s okay. Haven’t we all? But if you feel the need for a boffin bootcamp so you’ve got something to chat about when you finally have another dinner party, how’s about checking out the FTWeekend Festival?
It’s arriving at plush Kenwood House Gardens on Saturday September 4 with a pretty sensational line-up of speakers from the worlds of politics, the arts, food, fashion and more. Think of it as Newsnight’s ‘Late Review’ goes glamping. This year’s event is entitled ‘The Reawakening: Imagining a post-pandemic world’.
Across its eight stages (yes, eight: Literature & Tech; Arts; Food, Drink and Travel; FT Money; House & Home; How to Spend It; FT Cooks Live and the main stage) you can intellectually engage with the likes of Booker Prize-winner Ian McEwan, historian Simon Schama, designer Roksanda Illincic, poet Inua Ellams and fashion designer (and recent ‘Celebrity MasterChef’ first-round casualty) Patrick Grant. Science is represented by Sarah Gilbert, creator of the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine, while composer Max Richter will be performing.
We’re also promised food chat from Angela Hartnett and Claudia Roden, plus live cookery demos from Sarit Packer and Itamar Srulovich from Honey & Co, chef-patron of Jikoni Ravinder Bhogal, and Michelin-starred chef Niklas Ekstedt. Cos what’s a festival in 2021 without someone in a headset preparing ceviche?
Naturally, there will be lots of political and economics speakers too, including former prime minister Sir John Major, who might not have been regarded as great shakes at being PM at the time, but who must be feeling pretty flipping smug now.
If you want some genuine insight into our ravaged world and what the future might hold, plus some cultural and culinary cheerer-uppers on the side, it sounds like a great day out.
Full line-up details here.
FTWeekend Festival, Kenwood House Gardens. Sat Sep 4, 10am-8pm. From £89. Book here.
Insist on tunes? London’s best music festivals this year.