The Byline Festival describes itself as ‘the only festival trying to change the world’ and is organised by independent news website and newspaper, Byline, in partnership with the Frontline Club for journalists. Now in its third year, this year’s festival includes a panel of independent, digital news websites exploring the challenges facing independent news, where S&C will feature alongside press regulator IMPRESS and the New Internationalist.
The Byline festival runs from 23-26th August at Pippingford Manor Park, East Sussex and features music, comedy, activism and journalism. The themes of this year’s festival include defending democracy, the power of journalism and race and representation. The line-up includes Carole Cadwalladr, Gina Miller, Bonnie Greer and Hardeep Singh Kohli alongside music from The Feeling, Pussy Riot, Lowkey and Don Letts.
You can find the full festival lineup for each day over at the website.
Originally digital only, Byline launched in 2015 as a one-stop crowdfunding and media outlet platform ‘where journalists and quality bloggers reach readers directly’. The site has helped to fund and published a range of writers and journalists, including radical feminist Julie Bindel who investigated the global sex trade, and journalists James Doleman and Martin Hickman, who covered the phone-hacking trials. In 2019, Byline launched a subscription newspaper, Byline Times.
S&C’s Editor in Chief, Sarah Cheverton, will feature in a panel titled: Digital Killed the Journalism Star? The Future of News on Monday 26th August at the Future Dome stage. The panel includes other independent local publishers Social Spider and the Bedford Independent, magazine dedicated to socially conscious journalism and publishing The New Internationalist, and independent press regulator IMPRESS, and will explore independent publishing on a local and global level and the challenges facing the sector in a time of crisis for journalism.
Sarah said, ‘We’re really excited both to be attending and featuring in this year’s Byline Festival. We’ll be talking about our work with the Portsmouth community to bring missing stories and perspectives to the news, including our first ever training course on investigative journalism for local residents, Reclaim the News, which we ran in partnership with the Centre for Investigative Journalism last year.’
Climate change activists Extinction Rebellion are running the ‘Rebel Rebel’ stage, featuring talks on climate change, workshops for activists, and musical performances, while comedy performances take place throughout the festival including the annual Bad Press Awards. The Festival also features a range of unique experiences, including the Human Library and Walk a Mile in my Shoes from the Empathy Museum. Families attending the festival also have lots of activities to keep the kids happy across the 4 day festival.
The Byline Festival runs from 23rd to 26th August 2019 at Pippingford Manor Park, East Sussex. Byline has offered our readers a special 40% discount for the festival, which you can access by using the code ‘BIG40’ when you book online.
