Sheffield's Festival of Debate to be streamed online due to Covid-19 pandemic

Sheffield’s Festival of Debate 2020 is to be held online for the first time after scheduled in-person events were cancelled because of the coronavirus.

The arts and culture festival will instead host six weekly live streamed events every Thursday throughout May, June and early July featuring speakers such as writer and activist, George Monbiot.

Political commentator Grace Blakely and epidemiologist Kate Pickett are also scheduled to give online talks as part of the new programme.

As the biggest non-partisan political festival in the UK which aims to provide a platform for debating and discussing key political and social issues, organisers are keen to use the coronavirus crisis to further discussions about how society can be rebuilt.

Festival Programmer Joe Kriss was keen to point out just how much the political landscape has shifted: “The Festival of Debate 2020 has been re-programmed almost from scratch, because most topics at the moment need to be seen through a Covid-19 ‘lens’.

“The pace of change in world events is hard to keep up with. The festival also needed to be built around being digitally native.”

Political theorist Michael Jacobs and third sector organisations such as Citizens Advice Sheffield will also virtually headline the event.

The Festival of Debate plans to release a series of short videos on social media, featuring citizens and campaigners giving their insight into the coronavirus pandemic.

Joe added: “This crisis is being played out in public, in private, across our media and in our living rooms, yet it's increasingly hard to make sense of the challenges that we are facing.

“This online programme of events will give the opportunity to open up wider discussion about coronavirus, our collective responses to it, and our visions of a better society.

“We hope you will join us so we can discuss how to make change — together.”

The Festival of Debate’s online programme is available to view here.