What’s On

Nick Clegg, former President, Global Affairs, at Meta, Deputy Prime Minister of the UK and Liberal Democrat leader, kicks off this year’s festival with an essential conversation on how the…more

Discover Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s short story ‘White Nights’ (1848) in this guided reading group led by Dr Sarah Hudspith, one of the UK’s foremost Dostoyevsky scholars. Explore and discuss the story’s…more

Writer and curator James Payne is giving art history a fresh lick of paint. Having gained a following of over 1.7 million subscribers on YouTube with his refreshingly entertaining art…more

Writer and curator James Payne is giving art history a fresh lick of paint. Having gained a following of over 1.7 million subscribers on YouTube with his refreshingly entertaining art…more

Orwell Prize-longlisted journalist James Bloodworth shares the findings of his astonishing undercover investigation into the paranoid and misogynistic online subcultures of the ‘manosphere’. Find out why so many men are…more

He’s back! Need we say more? Oh, go on then… Festival favourite Gyles Brandreth returns to Ilkley with his new book, Somewhere, A Boy and A Bear.  2026 will mark…more

Before social media, much less a #BLM hashtag, journalists of colour were putting hot metal to paper to declare that Black lives matter. Let journalist Yvonne Singh introduce you to…more

Britain has always been a craft land. For generations what we made with our hands defined our identities, built our communities and shaped our regions. Art historian James Fox has…more

Britain has always been a craft land. For generations what we made with our hands defined our identities, built our communities and shaped our regions.    Art historian James Fox…more

From Kings and Emperors to Macaronis and Rockhoppers, award-winning travel writer Jamie Lafferty has seen them all on a birding quest like no other. Now, Lafferty brrr-ings his penguin proficiency…more

The Beatles were a success story unlike any other: four lads from Liverpool who went on to become the best-selling music act of all time. But they didn’t do it…more

Join professional knife sharpener and Ilkley local, Gareth ‘Gaz’ Heaton, to learn the lost craft of knife sharpening. Using techniques from his new book Do Maintain, he’ll explain what you…more

In a world where offline isn’t an option, how can you protect yourself – and your family – from online harm?   Dr Kaitlyn Regehr, one of the UK’s leading…more

In a world where offline isn’t an option, how can you protect yourself – and your family – from online harm? Dr Kaitlyn Regehr, one of the UK’s leading experts…more

Lee Lawrence was just eleven when his mother, Cherry Groce, was shot by police in his family’s Brixton home. He spent next 30 years fighting for justice and for the…more

Renowned authors Rachel Joyce and Esther Freud discuss the nuances of family relationships – their tensions, what breaks them and what it takes to mend them – in their new…more

Renowned authors Rachel Joyce and Esther Freud discuss the nuances of family relationships – their tensions, what breaks them and what it takes to mend them – in their new…more

Bestselling chef Sabrina Ghayour returns to Ilkley with a new collection of mouth-watering Middle Eastern recipes. Ghayour, whose recipes Nigella Lawson praised as ‘all flavour, no fuss’ and The Times…more

At the dawn of the 20th century Henri Bergson became the most famous philosopher on earth. An international celebrity, he made headlines around the world debating luminaries like Bertrand Russell…more

Award-winning earth scientist and TV presenter Anjana Khatwa explains the profound influence rocks have had on human life, from the sacred stones of Stonehenge and the rose red city of…more