Documentary filmmaker Louis Theroux and singer and activist Charlotte Church are the latest speakers to be announced for FutureFest 2020, joining comedian Richard Ayoade, Extinction Rebellion co-founder Gail Bradbrook and politician David Lammy. FutureFest, hosted by global innovation foundation Nesta, is a one-day festival that celebrates the power of people to shape the future, and it will be taking over London’s Tobacco Dock on 20 March 2020.

In addition to the array of speakers and debates, FutureFest also features a host of multi-sensory experiences that present different versions of our possible futures. This year features an augmented-reality comedy set on a cruise ship, a dinner date experience that uses psychological studies to accelerate intimacy between strangers, and an inflatable infinity space for stargazing.

In 2020, FutureFest offers audiences the essential tools to reset the clock on doomsday and navigate a better future. How can the planet sustain us? What will Alexa do with your biggest secrets? How can we learn to be alone together? With questions as big as these, it’s tempting to retreat, take shelter in a remote forest and hide from the world. But what we need is a map and a compass to point us in the right direction. This year, FutureFest showcases the artistic installations, performances, talks and debates that audiences need in order to build a survival kit for the future.

This is the first FutureFest that will go on into the evening, with debates and performances until 10pm, making it a great Friday night out for the curious-minded.

The latest additions to the line up...

Louis Theroux, the iconic British documentary filmmaker and journalist, will be asking, ‘Is the world getting weirder?’ Drawing on his experiences of chronicling the fringes of society, he will examine if people will become more homogenised in the future due to our increasingly globalised, hyper-connected society. Or, as extreme beliefs like flat eartherism are given a platform, might the future see the rise of the weird?

Charlotte Church, the singer, actress, presenter and political activist, will be talking about the future of education and how she is setting up her own school - where the children are in charge.

Lemn Sissay, the BAFTA-nominated award-winning writer, international poet, performer playwright, artist and broadcaster explores how creativity can shape our futures

Laurence Scott the writer, broadcaster and cultural commentator exploring how digital technologies will affect our sense of personhood.

They will be joining…

Richard Ayoade, the writer, director, actor, presenter and comedian (plus amateur dentist) is a man all of us would trust to take us to a successful future, not least because we think he might be from there. We’ll be asking him how to foster creativity and originality in an increasingly homogenised and metric-led world.

Gail Bradbrook has been researching, planning and training for mass civil disobedience since 2010 and is a co-founder of the social movement Extinction Rebellion, and will be sharing her thoughts on the future of activism.

David Lammy, MP for Tottenham and campaigner on issues from the Grenfell Tower fire to the Windrush scandal, will be speaking on future of tribalism, and how our need to belong can make or break society

Elif Shafak, author and TED-speaker and one of Politico's 12 people who will make the world better will question whether pessimism could save the world.

George Monbiot, journalist, writer and environmental campaigner will share his views on how lab-grown food could avert the climate crisis.

Experiences
Osmo: an inflatable infinity space that audiences can climb inside to view a mesmerising projection of stars. Crafted from mylar, the NASA space material, Osmo reproduces the cosmos and shields from wifi and phone signals, allowing people used to light-polluted cities a chance to understand their place in the universe, and a mindful respite from pervasive digital technologies.
Robot Cruise Ship: under the threat of rising sea levels, join a crew of volunteers to venture into the unknown on board a robot cruise ship. Through an interactive comedy show, you can experience the highs and lows of a potential future life at sea by controlling an avatar in an Augmented Reality (AR) world using your phone.
Binaural Dinner Date: inspired by the psychological studies that explore whether intimacy between two strangers can be accelerated by having them ask each other a specific series of personal questions, this critically-acclaimed, interactive, theatrical experience asks how we will connect with each other in the future.

Ends

For more information contact Juliet Grant in Nesta’s press office on 020 7438 2668 or 07866 949047, [email protected] or [email protected]

Nesta_Press [email protected]

Notes to editor

About FutureFest

FutureFest is a celebration of our power to shape the future. The future is not something that happens to us, but something we can create. FutureFest offers audiences a space to push the boundaries, to connect with other thinkers and to find their own visions for what might lie ahead. Created by Nesta, this one-day festival brings together thousands of people to occupy the future through a range of multi-sensory experiences, including talks and debates, comedy and music, artistic installations and interactive performances. Past festivals have welcomed thinkers and performers such as Edward Snowden, Vivienne Westwood, Akala, Jon Ronson, Imogen Heap and Brian Eno.

About Nesta

Nesta is a global innovation foundation. For us, innovation means turning bold ideas into reality and changing lives for the better. We use our expertise, skills and funding in areas where there are big challenges facing society. We've spent over 20 years working out the best ways to make change happen through research and experimenting, and we've applied that to our work in innovation policy, health, education, government innovation and the creative economy and arts. Nesta is based in the UK and supported by a financial endowment. We work with partners around the globe to bring bold ideas to life to change the world for good.

www.nesta.org.uk | @nesta_uk

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