Why festivals of ideas matter more than ever

“We’ve been quiet for a few months as we’ve shaped the festival for 2025, which will be revealed in the coming weeks,” says Martin Dickson, Festival Director of the Leeds International Festival of Ideas. “But our purpose remains the same, to create a space where people can come together to explore big questions, challenge assumptions, and share ideas that have the power to shape society.”

As anticipation builds for LIFI25, it’s a timely moment to reflect on why festivals of ideas matter more than ever.

We live in times where those in positions of power, particularly in politics and the media that often seem intent on polarising debate, narrowing perspectives, and suppressing viewpoints that don’t align with their own. Yet, in contrast, people in their everyday lives at work, at home, and in communities are constantly generating incredible ideas. These ideas are born from something simple but profound: conversation.

An ideas festival like LIFI25 exists to provide a platform for those conversations to take place. It’s a space where people come together to share perspectives, find inspiration, and build hope. When we discuss the significant social issues that affect us all, we’re reminded that collaboration and dialogue are how we create better ideas and ultimately, a better society.

And that’s the essence of why ideas festivals are not only important, they’re essential. Today’s world often feels tense and confrontational, from global conflicts to everyday interactions in shops, schools, and workplaces. We seem to have drifted into a binary state where opinions must be all-or-nothing, and disagreement is too often met with hostility.

Festivals like LIFI offer a different kind of space: one that encourages empathy, understanding, and curiosity. They remind us that it’s not just acceptable, but healthy and necessary, to agree to disagree. By engaging with new thoughts and perspectives, we develop deeper insight, not just into issues, but into the people around us.

Being different shouldn’t be something we fear or mistrust. It should inspire curiosity. When we approach what we don’t understand with openness, we expand our perspective—and help build a more inclusive and progressive society.

Dr. Jonathan Sacks, the late Chief Rabbi and academic philosopher, captured this beautifully in his book Morality (2020):

“The best way to understand the unknown is to go towards it, engage with it, talk to people you don’t understand, rather than fear or hate what is different.”

One of humanity’s greatest gifts is our innate curiosity and our ability to imagine, think, and dream. Sadly, too many influential voices today seem to discourage these qualities. Which brings us back to the central question: Why do we need festivals like LIFI?

Because we need spaces where people come together.
To talk. To listen. To grow.

Ideas festivals move us away from polarisation and toward inclusive, creative, and collaborative thinking. They help us rediscover what brings out the best in humanity.

So this brings us back to LIFI25, which we will soon be revealing the first faces then bringing you the topics and full line up in the next 5 weeks.

One of the gifts of humanity must surely be our innate curiosity? Our natural ability to think and dream and create as an individual. Sadly too many people in influential positions around us at the moment seem to have a very opposing view to this, so my answer to the question at the top of this piece is simple: why do we need festivals like LIFI, because we need people together, talking together, learning and growing ideas and perspectives together which collectively move us back from the damaging, polarised and destructive behaviour we are seeing too much of in society at the moment, and into a world of positive, inclusive, creative and collaborative thinking which brings out the very best in humanity