Five Essential Activities at HowTheLightGetsIn

They might be called debates, but sitting in one of these panel talks will help expand your mind rather than raise your blood pressure. With a stellar lineup of speakers, HowTheLightGetsIn have curated an expansive and engaging list of subjects for discussion. The Key to Consciousness explores why we are still no closer to solving the deep puzzle of consciousness with speakers Iain McGilchrist, Hannah Critchlow and Donald Hoffman. In The Fantasies of the West, Peter Hitchens, Bronwen Maddox and Paul Mason consider if the West is making a fundamental error and risking global catastrophe in imagining that the rest of the world should think like us. While at After Happily Ever After, Esther Freud, Sophie Fiennes and Sir David Hare wonder if a successful non-narrative structure in fiction is ever possible, or even desirable.

Amongst all this culture, you can’t be expected to eat soggy chips on the Heath, so the festival has put together an equally appetising lineup of food and drink to expand your belly while they expand your mind. From Lalitas, offering delicious and fresh South Indian food, to South-West London’s super-premium organic-certified handcrafted Graveney Gin, to the Jolly Lovely Lolly Lady, delivering artisan lollies, there’s plenty to feed your day of thought.

Promoting local talent in East London, Woodburner can often be found hosting nights at the Dalston Curve Garden. This year they’ll be bringing their acoustic offerings to the grounds of Kenwood House as Theo Bard curates a lineup of under the radar artists to complement the performances on the festival’s main stage. Amongst the acts playing will be Northumbrian indie-folk songwriter and producer Brother Castor, London-based experimental, dance and jazz band Mama Sutra, and atmospheric folk act Whiskey Moon Face. But please rest assured, there will be no actual wood burning stove in the tent.