Educating, entertaining and inspiring through public engagement

A Festival for public good from a University for public good

York Festival of Ideas was founded based on the belief in the power of education and ideas to transform lives and to positively impact communities. 

Established in 2011 and led by the University of York, the Festival takes place every June, offering a plethora of predominantly free events to educate, entertain and inspire audiences of all generations and backgrounds. This year, we worked with 131 local, national and international partners and 14 sponsors to provide 241 events to an audience of 38,500.

The Festival is an expression of the University’s commitment to being a university for public good. Reaching a large, diverse audience by offering the majority of our events free of charge is therefore one of our main goals and a key distinctive difference from many other festivals across the UK. 

Each year, we ask our Festival audiences to complete a survey. 90% of this year’s respondents expressed that they are more likely to attend Festival events because they are free, testifying to the importance of our continued commitment to this. As ever, the Festival is grateful to have the support of so many generous sponsors, allowing us to fulfil this promise to our community.

A time to rediscover, reimagine and rebuild

Joan Concannon, Director of York Festival of Ideas said:

“Once again we were delighted to bring York Festival of Ideas to our local community and a wider audience from across the UK and the globe. Over 14 days, we delivered a largely free programme of events which succeeded in our aim to educate, entertain and inspire.

What particularly struck us this year was the importance of the  social and community aspect of the Festival. It was not just an opportunity to engage with a wide variety of ideas, but also to meet up with others. For those joining us online, the Festival continued to be an opportunity to feel part of a community of shared interests.

Thanks to our amazing sponsors - including our headline sponsor, The Holbeck Trust - we were once again able to offer the majority of the Festival for free. We passionately believe in making ideas, discussion and debate accessible to as many people as possible; it is a valuable and tangible expression of the University of York as a university of public good, an ethos which has been integral to the University throughout its history, and which is equally important now in its 60th anniversary year as it was in 1963.

It has also been gratifying to learn from our audiences that the Festival creates a safe space for the discussion of ideas, which is particularly important in what seems to be becoming an increasingly polarised world. We would like to thank our attendees for sharing their thoughts and questions so freely and passionately with us at our events as well as afterwards, via email and social media. 

As always, this year we brought topical discussions to the Festival - from food banks to poverty, from the criminal justice system to the role of social enterprise in the regeneration of cities - and we offered an array of equality and diversity events, amongst many others. Children’s author, Sir Michael Morpurgo, joined us for the sixth time, this time for a spectacular performance of War Horse at York Theatre Royal; author, historian and broadcaster, Tracy Borman talked about the relationship between Elizabeth I and Anne Boleyn; vocalist and storyteller Supriya Nagarajan took us on a journey into the world of Sita; and politician and campaigner Michael Cashman shared his journey from EastEnders to the House of Lords. We were also pleased to have partnered with The Big Tent Ideas Festival, the cross-party platform for constructive debate and civil disagreement, this year. 

Most importantly, York Festival of Ideas is a festival that reflects the University and the city which is its home. A city with a strong Quaker tradition, York has long been home to many dissenting traditions - one of its most renowned sons, Seebohm Rowntree, is world famous as a social reformer - and that spirit of inquiry lives on today. We hope you agree that the Festival is a tangible embodiment of this spirit.”

Key Festival stats:

• 38,500 attendees
• 241 events
• 131 partners
• 14 sponsors
• 233,062 website views from 151 countries
• 19,374 followers across four social media platforms

This year, we could again broaden the Festival's reach through our partnership with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Big Ideas radio programme, which has an estimated 600,000 downloads per month. Their podcast versions of York Festival of Ideas talks are enjoyed by 60,000 regular listeners. The Festival also ran alongside York Pride, which was celebrated by 15,000 people across the city.

Key survey stats:

• 99% would recommend the Festival to a friend
• 95% rated the Festival as Excellent, Very Good or Good
• 44% had not attended the Festival before
• 90% said they were more likely to attend events because they were free of charge

A collective experience

After several years of social disruption, the 2023 Festival programme offered a much larger amount of in-person events again, the most since 2019. The sense of community this created, especially for those able to join us in York, was palpable and strongly reflected in the feedback we received.

Survey respondents noted how valuable the Festival was in terms of coming together with friends, making new connections and discussing ideas with other like-minded people. The Festival was strongly felt as a collective experience.

Building stronger communities through collaboration

The sense of community is enhanced by our partnership model, which adds great value to the programme each year.

While the Festival is coordinated, and largely delivered, by the University of York, over 130 partners participate. A large number of these are local or regional to York, and include long-standing organisations such as the National Centre for Early Music, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and the Yorkshire Philosophical Society.

We have also collaborated for many years with local societies, such as The Fishergate, Fulford and Heslington Local History Society (FFH) - who, this year, organised an entire day of interdisciplinary events - and we continued to form new local partnerships in 2023, for instance with Navigators Art & Performance, a diverse collective of York-based artists, writers, musicians and performers.

Many of our partners collaborate on local initiatives and projects, which often have a strong emphasis on community building and engagement. Events this year included:

• Urban River Restoration in Action - part of the York Cares Big Community Challenge, and a partnership between the Environment Agency, the City of York Council and St Nicks;
• Connecting With Our Neighbours - a collaboration between various civic organisations, including York Münster Twinning and York Dijon Twinning Associations;
• Creating Inclusive Internet Communities - a partnership between the University of York, Barclays Eagle Labs and 100% Digital York; 
• StreetLife - a UK Community Renewal Fund project led by the University of York in partnership with the City of York Council, York Civic Trust and York Music Venues Network;

and many others.

We were also especially delighted to have established a partnership with York Pride, allowing us to celebrate the LGBTQ+ communities of Yorkshire and to reaffirm our commitment to building safe and inclusive spaces.

In the coming years, the Festival will aim to keep creating opportunities for collaborations and partnerships to further drive social, cultural and economic progress in our community and beyond.

A festival for everyone

The Festival strives to spark ideas among people of all generations and to create communities of learning across York.

This year we offered a particularly fantastic variety of family-friendly activities: from the Discovery Zone, which introduced children to the exciting research being carried out at the University, to the art and science workshops held in local libraries; from an interactive storytelling workshop with XR Stories to the children’s opera, Borka, delivered by Ignite Music. 

The provision of family-friendly activities is integral to the Festival, and so is the promotion of lifelong learning. We were glad to see that many survey respondents praised the Festival for fostering a love for learning, regardless of one’s age or background.

As in previous years, in 2023 we also took events into community spaces, as part of our commitment to making the Festival as accessible as possible. Our continued partnership with Explore York - the city’s Library and Archive service operating 17 libraries across York - allowed us to deliver events in outlying communities, including hands-on activities in areas which do not typically engage with universities. We were pleased that one of these events attracted 40% of attendees from groups least likely to engage with Higher Education.

Maintaining virtual communities

During the pandemic, our online community - which includes people from around and far beyond York - provided an important space for education, entertainment and inspiration. In 2023, it remains an important part of the Festival.

We were delighted to continue last year’s successful hybrid approach, providing a full week of online events, as well as recording many of our in-person talks and panel discussions, which can be (re)watched on our York Ideas YouTube channel. 

Our online programme kept us connected to our local and global audiences, and enabled us to remain inclusive. The need for accessibility is indeed greater than ever, not least because of the difficulties many of us have been facing due to the cost of living crisis and the continued impact of the pandemic. The Festival’s online provision was beneficial to those with limited mobility and those with caring responsibilities, for example, and it also reduced potential barriers to attending, such as increased cost of transport or parking.

Our commitment to bringing Festival content to audiences who cannot join us in person for different reasons is crucial to our aim of enabling as many people as possible to have access to ideas and research. We were delighted to learn that our survey respondents highlighted the importance of continued virtual engagement with the Festival. We are also grateful to our global partners, such as the Big Ideas program (Australia), which help us make York Festival of Ideas accessible in virtual form to so many people worldwide.

Sponsors enabling diversity and insightful discussions

This year’s Festival Focus events truly embraced the Festival theme, ‘Rediscover, Reimagine, Rebuild’.

Led by and made possible thanks to our generous donors - Aviva, The C and JB Morrell Trust, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, the Higher Education, Research and Innovation (ESRI) Department of the French Embassy in the UK, and Enterprise Works - these inspiring events involved a host of local, national and global experts that came together to discuss timely topics and contemporary challenges. 

Our 2023 focus panellists examined the UK’s criminal justice system, explored solutions to poverty, reflected on the relationship between Africa and Europe, imagined the future of the Creative Industries in the UK and France, and considered new approaches to urban regeneration. They provided invaluable insights and sparked important conversations, leading the way for positive change in our communities.

Other sponsor-led events included ‘Back to the Moon: The next giant leap for humankind’, generously supported by our long-standing partner, the Institution of Engineering and Technology; a fascinating conversation and activities on biodiversity, led by the Leverhulme Centre for Anthropocene Biodiversity at the University of York; and an informative panel discussion on how we can create a greener future, courtesy of the York-Maastricht Partnership.

This year’s survey respondents described the Festival as engaging, topical, dynamic, stimulating and unifying. They praised the quality of the speakers and performers, as well as the safe, supportive and stimulating environment created by the Festival, which, they commented, fosters community building and idea sharing, both essential parts of our mission.

And we could not fulfil this mission without the generous support of our donors, who not only provide the Festival with a vast array of thought leaders from different areas, but are also integral to delivering the Festival for free.

Value of the Festival and the University to the City of York

This year’s audience survey revealed a particular appreciation for York - as the Festival venue and home to the University of York, and as such, a city of culture that values education and lifelong learning, as well as its citizens and communities.

The Festival is seen by attendees as something that sets York apart from other cities, including other university cities, bringing research and expertise right into the heart of the community. This, audience members feel, demonstrates that York does not only value visitors, but also looks after its local citizens and communities.

And speaking of visitors - while the Festival provides York residents with a plethora of activities, it also draws others to the city. Survey respondents who live elsewhere in the region stated that the Festival encourages them to visit York and “make a day out of it”, combining Festival events with meeting friends, sightseeing or shopping in the city.

The Festival is proud to be part of York’s annual cultural calendar, and to offer a variety of events that encourage audiences to explore York’s rich heritage. This year, a number of engaging tours, talks and exhibitions allowed residents and visitors alike to rediscover the city's past and to reimagine and rebuild York’s future, fostering a sense of pride and appreciation for our surroundings.

York is widely celebrated for its history - and quite rightly so. But, as our survey respondents noted, the Festival demonstrates that York is also a forward-looking, continuously evolving city - vibrant, open-minded and inclusive, built on a history of challenging social norms, and with a strong entrepreneurial heritage. Various events this year, such as ‘Reimagining the History of British Radicalism’, ‘Imagining Just Transition Futures’ and ‘Reimagining a Rewilded York’ highlighted these qualities.

Together with our sponsors Aviva and Enterprise Works, we also offered a series of events on social enterprise organisations in the region, focusing on the role they play in city regeneration and in modelling inspirational community-based entrepreneurship.

We are proud of the role that the Festival and the University play in the local community and were delighted to learn that 92% of survey respondents are aware that the Festival is organised by the University. Within this context, many highlighted the value of the University for the City of York, with one respondent noting that it forms “a key part of the city’s identity”.

Research in action

Each year, York Festival of Ideas allows us to showcase the inspiring and innovative research carried out across the University of York, and to demonstrate the university's convening power as well as its commitment to the public good.

Contributions from university researchers are the cornerstone of the Festival and crucial to its success. This year, over 270 members of the University community took part in delivering events in all kinds of subject areas, for people of all ages: 

• A medieval ‘dating show’, organised by researchers from the Department of History, explored changing attitudes to marriage, singledom, LGBTQ+ relationships, friendship, youth and old age; 
• A panel put together by members of the Department of Health Sciences discussed how we can reimagine healthcare to treat the body and mind; 
• And audiences could rediscover the archaeological treasures of Roman York, learn about the health of oceans, and so much more - all thanks to the contributions of University of York researchers.

Events involving University researchers not only provide advantages for the Festival and its attendees. The researchers themselves also benefit in many ways, as public engagement opens up new avenues and opportunities, new perspectives and connections. Sharing their ideas and projects at Festival events allows University researchers to view their work in a new light, while also helping them develop their communication skills. This is essential at any career stage. 

Crucially, the Festival brings cutting edge research directly from the University of York into the heart of the city’s community. As AHRC-funded doctoral researcher Nicholas Dunn-McAffee states, being part of the Festival has really “help[ed] me hone in on how my research can be made more inclusive and be designed with the public in mind”.

Undoubtedly, the Festival provides audiences with unparalleled access to the inspiring and wide-ranging research taking place in York; but the Festival also provides the University with access to a community of inspiring individuals, who want to see and experience research in action. We are proud to provide this forum and opportunity for open dialogue between York’s academic community and the public.

Research at the University of York is focused around seven research themes, which align our academic strengths to best meet the grand scientific, social and environmental challenges of our time. Explore our research themes.