13 August 2020: The FT Weekend Festival will take place as a fully digital experience for a global audience on 3-5 September 2020. Now in its fifth year, the award-winning festival of ideas will bring together nearly 100 speakers in arts, music, literature, food and drink, business and technology.
The three-day event, featuring FT Weekend columnists and editors and a host of famous outside speakers, will tackle the wrenching social, political and economic issues of our time, from post Covid-capitalism and the geopolitics of tech, to the reinvention of luxury and the future of dining. We will also have cocktail classes, performances and a wine-tasting - to be savoured from the comfort of your home.
“This year’s FT Weekend Festival will be so much more than a typical virtual event. You can expect interactive and experiential sessions that showcase the range of the FT’s journalism,” said Alec Russell, FT Weekend editor. “I’m delighted we are bringing the entire festival to our global audience for the first time, with ticket holders from 61 countries already signed up to take part.”
Programming highlights include:
- Award-winning American poet Claudia Rankine on her new book, addressing whiteness, white privilege and normalising uncomfortable conversations
- FT columnist Merryn Somerset Webb and Yanis Varoufakis on post-Covid capitalism
- Live Lunch with the FT with Snap CEO Evan Spiegel
- The death of the office and our home-working future with former FT columnist Lucy Kellaway
- Inside the editorial debate - FT Editor, Roula Khalaf, Martin Wolf, Gillian Tett and others lift the curtain on their daily debate of the issues of the day
- Brexit, culture wars and the politics of post-crisis Britain with FT UK chief political commentator Robert Shrimsley, David Lammy, Camilla Cavendish and more
- Designer Paul Smith on 50 years in the business
- Pulitzer Prize winner Natasha Trethewey on writing about memory and history
- English designer Anya Hindmarch and the reinvention of luxury in a post-Covid world
- How to save the arts with former FT editor Lionel Barber and Kwame Kwei Armah
The festival will feature experiential sessions such as a cocktail hour with film director Paul Feig; wine tasting with Master of Wine and FT wine columnist Jancis Robinson; a cocktail masterclass with Alice Lascelles and more. We are also introducing a special series of “Behind the scenes at the FT” sessions including: How I write my column with Simon Kuper, Tim Harford and Pilita Clark.
For more information, including how to buy passes and a full schedule of events, visit ftweekendfestival.com.
There are limited press passes available, please get in touch with Katrina.Fedczuk@ft.com to apply.
About the Financial Times
The Financial Times is one of the world’s leading business news organisations, recognised internationally for its authority, integrity and accuracy. The FT has a record paying readership of more than one million, three-quarters of which are digital subscriptions. It is part of Nikkei Inc., which provides a broad range of information, news and services for the global business community.