Shared conversations at festivals in York can help people understand the world better - Joan Concannon

The Angel on the Green is one of a rising number of community owned pubs across York and North Yorkshire. A pub that wants to be so much more for its community than simply a very nice place to go for a drink. Community owned pubs see their role as an anchor, a beacon and sometimes a stimulus for their local communities. So we’ve joined forces with The Angel to develop a shared conversation on a range of topics that affect all of our daily lives.

What’s been remarkable, consistent and affirming is that those audiences, many of whom have very little engagement with our University or the campus, rocked up in their droves to engage in conversation and to ask questions. And the one consistent question they’ve asked is ‘what can I do?’.

This series is anchored to a wider context. For the past 12 years, I’ve had the privilege of directing something called the York Festival of Ideas as part of the University of York’s commitment to demonstrating that we are not some ivory tower ‘helicoptering’ above the fantastic place we’re located, but rather we are a major contributor to the city and region’s economic, cultural, social ambitions.

We started in 2011, as a pilot with three city partners: National Centre for Early Music, York Theatre Royal and York Museums Trust, delivering 24 free events to an audience of about 6,000 people. Fast forward to 2022, and we’re partnering with more than 120 local, regional, national and international programme partners and sponsors to deliver a programme of more than 200 free events with an audience, in 2022, of more than 40,000 from 150 countries - because, oh yes, that Covid thing made us global.

We’ve learned again and again over 12 years that a festival celebrating human ingenuity, endurance and sheer bloody-mindedness is a concept that people all over the world can and will engage with - even in the midst of lockdown and global turmoil.

Delivering those events for free is intrinsic to our ethos - shamelessly borrowed from Lord Reith - to educate, entertain and inspire diverse audiences to immerse themselves in ideas and to understand the value of research to our everyday lives. We believe passionately that no one should ever be excluded from an intoxicating world of ideas borne out of the expansion of the frontiers of knowledge - surely the core mission of every university. But so often sharing knowledge and ideas is a closed shop and only those with economic power are given the key to enter.

The festival has a particular interest in harnessing the University’s convening power to bring together a very eclectic programme and a very diverse speaker and subject base. We want to demonstrate just how complex the issues facing humanity are - and how many different perspectives and insights are required to address those intractable and systemic challenges.

In a world of social, cultural and economic polarity and division, I would argue that now more than ever, we need festivals like the York Festival of Ideas.

And our latest partner, Big Tent Festival, is another inspiring example: itself founded to address head on the increasingly fractious, emotive and divisive ways our political system is evolving.

Big Tent is attempting to transcend traditional party political divisions and seeks to find areas of common ground in a more inclusive and respectful environment.

But that question of ‘what can I do’ still requires an answer. The wonderful book, ‘Palaces for the People’ by Eric Klinenberg set out a powerful case for how libraries can be safe places to explore differences across every spectrum of human experience.

I would argue that festivals like York Festival of Ideas and Big Tent Festival also offer an inclusive and empathetic space from which we can explore the new, the unexpected, the mysterious, and oftentimes quite extraordinary achievements of our fellow human beings.

Every year, I become more convinced that honest, open and inclusive communication and engagement is the vital tool that could truly help to ‘rediscover, reimagine, rebuild’ our fractured, beleaguered and weary society - and spoiler alert, that is this year’s Festival of Ideas theme.

So come and join us; explore new subjects; hear inspiring stories and have your voice heard - and yes, do please ask ‘what can I do’?

The Festival of Ideas kicks off on June 2 and will deliver more than 200 free events until June 15, followed by our partner Big Tent Festival on June 16 and 17.

Joan Concannon is the director of external relations at the University of York.