Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown is set to headline the eighth consecutive Festival of Politics at the Scottish Parliament in August.
At the four-day festival, where Holyrood magazine is the media partner, the former Labour leader will deliver the inaugural Campbell Christie Lecture, established to recognise the former general secretary of the Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC) who died last year.
Holyrood magazine is publishing a special issue ahead of the festival in July, featuring in-depth interviews with Scotland’s Makar, Liz Lochhead, Culture Secretary Fiona Hyslop, outgoing chief executive of the National Theatre of Scotland (NTS), Vicky Featherstone, arts impresario Richard Demarco, and Scotland’s Commissioner for Children and Young People, Tam Baillie.
Under the theme ‘Politics.
Culture. Creativity. A Force for Positive Change’, events ranging from the world of politics to music, art, and theatre, will run over the course of two weekends in August.
Former Scottish Secretary, Sir Malcolm Rifkind, and former First Minister, Jack McConnell, will participate in panel discussions on UK-Russian relations, and the influence of small nations respectively.
Meanwhile, renowned names within Scottish arts, including novelists Louise Welsh and Iain Banks, as well as Vicky Featherstone, Artistic Director and Chief Executive of NTS, will attend the event which, since its inception in 2005, has, together with the World Press Photo Exhibition, attracted crowds of almost a quarter of a million.
“The Festival of Politics shows the kind of innovation that sets the Scottish Parliament apart from others in engaging both the head and the heart,” said Presiding Officer Tricia Marwick MSP.
“While debate and discussion remain the bedrock, we have added contemporary art, music and theatre to our programme that continues to push boundaries.” The Festival of Politics starts on17 August and closes the following Saturday. Holyrood’s themed edition covering the event will be published at the beginning of July and will be available at the Parliament.
Alan Robertson
A graduate in Politics and Journalism from the University of Strathclyde, Alan joined the Holyrood team as a reporter in May 2012 fresh from finishing his studies. Alan spent four years in student media, the last of which helping to launch the award-winning Glasgow Journal as Managing Editor, and continues to work part-time as a sub-editor in sport for the Sunday...