Festival of Debate: LBC's James O'Brien headlines UK's biggest politics festival in its return to Sheffield

The UK's largest politics festival will return to Sheffield for 2024 headlined by the popular LBC radio host, James O'Brien.

Journalists and politicos from across the country will descend on the Steel City for the tenth edition of the Festival of Debate, which has previously feature speeches and involvement from huge names like Jeremy Corbyn and Armando Iannucci (both 2022).

“This year’s festival is the most ambitious we’ve ever put together, and we’re really excited about what we’ve got planned,” said festival director Joe Kriss, who has programmed the Festival of Debate since it was founded in Sheffield in 2015.

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Running from mid-April through to the tail-end of May, the festival will feature talks with performance poet Hollie McNish, journalist Sathnam Sanghera and the BBC's first disinformation and social media correspondent, Marianna Spring.

Sheffield resident and member of the House of Lords, Baroness Natalie Bennett, will also be partaking in the political festivities.

There will be over 60 keynote events discussing a range of topics from clean air to neighbourhood democracy and food systems. The non-partisan festival aims to "highlight potential solutions to systemic problems like climate breakdown, inequality and the democratic deficit".

Entry to the festival will once again be free for many of the events, with organisers Opus adding any ticketed events will be priced as low as possible to "encourage involvement".

The Festival of Debate kicks off with Ms McNish in the Leadmill on April 16, before reaching an end on May 25.