2010 Programme: Festival weekend overview

The Festival weekend includes more than 70 debates which are listed below ordered by time slot and room. To see Saturday or Sunday sessions only, select the day you want from the menu on the left or select sessions by Theme.

Or view and print out the Timetable as a two-page PDF.

Saturday 30 October: 10.30am-12.00pm
In Conversation Salons Lecture Theatre 2
Happy-clappy architecture: designing for well-being
Saturday 30 October: 1.30pm-3.00pm
Frame Debates Henry Moore Gallery
Worth three tenors? The value of opera
Saturday 30 October: 3.30pm-5.00pm
Frame Debates Henry Moore Gallery
Instrumental music: should music be a tool of social policy?
Saturday 30 October: 5.15pm-6.30pm
Thought for the day Student Union
Political graffiti or self-important art?
Sunday 31 October: 9.45am-10.30am
Breakfast Banter Lecture Theatre 2
Fans or financiers: who should own football?
Sunday 31 October: 10.45am-12.15pm
Battle for the Past Courtyard Gallery
Don't look back: why does history matter?
Sunday 31 October: 12.30pm-1.30pm
Battle for the Past Courtyard Gallery
Losing our marbles? Who owns culture?
Lunchtime Debates Lecture Theatre 2
Vampire literature: the crisis of being human
Sunday 31 October: 1.45pm-3.15pm
Battle for the Past Courtyard Gallery
What have the ancient Greeks done for us lately?
In Conversation Salons Lecture Theatre 2
An inspector calls: why are crime novels so popular?
Sunday 31 October: 5.30pm-6.30pm
Battle for the Past Courtyard Gallery
Archaeology: a load of old rubbish?
Thought for the day Lecture Theatre 2
Poetry and the tyranny of relevance
Thought for the day Student Union
Couture Wars: the politics of fashion

Festival Buzz

Too Many Laws?

"Only the Battle of Ideas could provide the platform for a discussion about a GCSE Science exam where the atmosphere was so electric. It felt like a battle for the soul of British education."
Philip Walters, chairman, Rising Stars educational publishers