Is your future one full of pant-filling fear? Or are you an eternally glass half-full optimist? Do you lie awake at night in a cold sweat of trepidation about what tomorrow might bring? Or are you bouncing up and down on the bed in sleepless excitement of what’s to come? Is this the end of days or is there a warm flicker of fiery future hope from the dismally damp blanket of now? Who’s got the power today and how might that change?
On 3 June, Atlas of the Future presents The Futurenauts: Power, Death and Money at Byline Festival – a carnival in which 3,000 people can “dance, debate, laugh and change the world”. The three day fest aims to recapture the truth and protest against fake news by providing an opportunity to see the wood from the trees – in a forest.
Make sounds in a forest in a riot of free speech
Taking place an hour from London in Ashdown Forest’s Pippingford Park, best-selling author Mark Stevenson and sustainability guru Ed Gillespie’s interactive and lively cabaret show is set to wrestle with the biggest questions. (Special mystery guests to be announced soon).
This tree will be there
Byline director Stephen Colegrave said: “We’d been doing quite a lot of events and we found that with what happened with Trump and all the other things going on last year in terms of the rise of populism and fake news and things like that, a lot of people started coming to the events we did. We thought it would be a great idea to do a festival.”
“Very excited! In the era of fake news #BylineFest is just what journalism needs.” – June Sarpong
Expect a riot (collective noun) of journalists, commentators, satirists, analysts, lawyers, musicians, actors and activists, including Hugh Grant, Lenny Henry and playwright Bonnie Greer.
“The brave new journalism that dares to report on the old.” – Hugh Grant
Comedian, broadcaster, journalist and chef Hardeep Singh Kohli
Festival Ring Master Hardeep Singh Kohli will do two full length stand up shows and John Cleese will present the Bad Press Awards, which campaign for truth and trust in Britain’s feral press. Here are a few more highlights.
Byline Festival = nothing like Fyre Festival
We have a special discount code for subscribers to AtlasNews. Simply sign up to our newsletter and then buy your tickets quoting the discount code ATLAS to get a full ticket for half the price at £75.
Stevenson + Gillespie = Futurenauty
Sailing close to the winds of change, the ‘Atlas Futurenauts’ are top selling author and futurist Mark Stevenson and leading sustainability expert Ed Gillespie.
Listen ►Mark and Ed interview Cathy Runciman, Atlas of the Future co-founder and former MD of Time Out International.
Read ► Only Planet, Ed’s inspirational tale of global adventure using anything but a plane to circumnavigate the world and Mark’s book We Do Things Differently.
Can’t wait for the Futurenauts to perform at our festival!