An inspiring mix of writers and thinkers will take to the stage for Hay Festival’s first Bristol event next month, including academic Fara Dabhoiwala, slam poet Vanessa Kisuule, historian David Olusoga and story guru Will Storr.
Taking place at Bristol Beacon on Thursday 27 March 2025, 7.30pm, ‘Hay Festival After Hours: Bristol’ promises a night of big ideas, performances, provocations and new thinking with a surprise line-up of emerging and established artists.
This is a chance to experience all the excitement of the world-famous Festival in one magical evening, a space where art forms collide and great minds meet.
Hosted by Bristol based historian David Olusoga, the evening will see Princeton historian Fara Dabhoiwala share insights from his new book What is Free Speech? The History of a Dangerous Idea; poet and writer Vanessa Kisuule preview her study on musicians and the cost of fame, Neverland; and Will Storr offers his new study into the power of storytelling, A Story is a Deal.
Founded in Hay-on-Wye, Wales in 1987, Hay Festival provides audiences with dynamic platforms to come together to share ideas, different perspectives and to provoke conversations that can create a better world.
Hay Festival Global CEO Julie Finch said:
“We are delighted to be welcoming this quartet of inspiring artists on stage for the first ever Hay Festival After Hours in Bristol. As a charity, we believe culture is for everyone and work to create accessible platforms of free exchange all around the world. Our first Bristol event is our next step in this journey. It’s going to be a night to remember. Join us!”
Fara Dabhoiwala said:
“Free speech is one of our core values, yet we can never agree on what it means. Why is that? Where does this idea come from, and where is it leading us? I look forward to revealing the gloriously rich and surprising history of an ideal that has always been unstable, weaponized and enmeshed in controversy – and to discussing how understanding its twisted past can help us make sense of our present predicaments.”
Vanessa Kisuule said:
“What a treat to be in the company of so many other great speakers for this event! Looking forward to guiding the audience through the mad and magical world of Neverland, where we'll be dissecting fame, fandom, fallibility and so much more.”
Hay Festival After Hours events take place thanks to the support of the Unwin Charitable Trust. Additional 2025 events will be announced in the new year.
Today’s announcement follows the release of the Hay Festival Hay-on-Wye 2025 earlybird events. Scheduled to take place in Wales, 22 May–1 June, a selection of events can be seen online now at hayfestival.org/wales.
Author bios
Fara Dabhoiwala was born in England, educated in Europe, and is of Indian descent. He is a Senior Research Scholar and Professor of History at Princeton, and previously taught for many years at Oxford. His last book, The Origins of Sex: A History of the First Sexual Revolution was an Economist and Sunday Times book of the year and has been translated into several languages.
Vanessa Kisuule is a writer and performer based in Bristol. She has been featured on BBC iPlayer, Radio 1 and Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour, and has written for Guardian, NME and Lonely Planet. Burning Eye Books publish her poetry. Kisuule is the co-tutor for Southbank New Poets Collective 2021-22 and was Bristol City Poet 2018-20. Her poem on the historic toppling of Edward Colston’s statue ‘Hollow’ gained over 600,000 views on Twitter in three days.
David Olusoga is a British-Nigerian historian, author, presenter and BAFTA winning film-maker. He is Professor of Public History at the University of Manchester, the author of several books and a columnist for the Observer, The Voice and BBC History Magazine, also writing for the Guardian and the New Statesman. He presents the long-running BBC history series A House Through Time and wrote and presented the multi-award winning BBC series Britain’s Forgotten Slave Owners. He is a contributor to the Oxford Companion to Black British History and in 2019 was awarded an OBE for services to history and community integration. Black and British was longlisted for the Orwell Prize, shortlisted for the inaugural Jhalak Prize and won the PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize. A children's edition, Black and British: A Short, Essential History was published in 2020.
Will Storr is an award-winning and bestselling author who has spent over a decade exploring the origins and importance of stories and the power they have over us, personally and collectively. He is the author of six widely acclaimed books including Selfie and The Status Game, and he also collaborates with high profile figures as a ghostwriter and story consultant. His journalism has appeared in titles such as the Guardian, Sunday Times, New Yorker and New York Times. He has been recognised with numerous awards, including the National Press Club award for excellence, the AFM award for Best Investigative Journalism and prestigious honours from Amnesty International and the One World Press Awards for his work on sexual violence against men.