HowTheLightGetsIn, the world’s largest philosophy and music festival, returns with a bang

More than 100 events took place during the two day festival on Hampstead Heath

HowTheLightGetsIn Festival (HowTheLightGetsIn)

HowTheLightGetsIn, the world’s largest philosophy and music festival, returned with a bang last month as the event took place for the first time in-person since 2019 after four ground-breaking virtual reality festivals held during the pandemic.

The world renowned event, which was held from 18 – 19 September at Kenwood House in London, brought a weekend of live performances, debates and talks from world leading thinkers.

It acted as the perfect post lockdown tonic for the thousands of people who flocked for the festival across the two days.

The festival drew in some of the biggest thinkers from countries around the world with 90 speakers at more than 100 events spread across the weekend at the frontier of new and exciting ideas and theories.

The events ranged from 67 debates and solo talks, 30 music and comedy performances, and 24 extra experience events including documentary-screenings, ‘How To’ workshops and ‘In Conversation’ sessions, which all took place at the site on Hampstead Heath.

The Independent’s women’s correspondent, Maya Oppenheim, who is the only women’s correspondent at a UK news outlet, attended the festival and was a panellist at one of the event’s debates.

She took part in the ‘Cracking Girl Code’, a discussion questioning whether individualism has taken over the feminist movement.

On taking part in the event Maya said: “Philosophy is often seen as something we leave to Plato’s so-called ‘philosopher kings’ rather than something we incorporate into quotidian life. But HowTheLightGetsIn Festival hopes to do away with this stereotype of philosophy and discuss life’s biggest and hardest questions. And it was an honour to be part of such an event.

“The panel discussion I spoke at looked at how corporate individualistic feminism has become increasingly dominant in recent years, among a number of other important themes.

“During the debate, I discussed everything from police violence against women, to the fact between two and three women are murdered each week by their partners or exes, to how the extortionate cost of childcare shuts women out of the workplace, to the disproportionate numbers of women on poverty wages in low-paid precarious forms of employment in this country, to the importance of taking an intersectional approach to feminism.”

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HowTheLightGetsIn, is set to return to London next autumn but before that the festival is scheduled to return to Hay-on-Wye during the spring bank holiday in 2022. More details on that event are due to be released later in the month and presale details can be found by clicking here.

All the debates and talks from the festival will be released on the Institute of Art and Ideas online platform IAI.tv over the coming months for viewers to enjoy, including Maya’s ‘Cracking Girl Code’, and can be viewed by clicking here.