Tom Hodgkinson highlights an Idler Festival talk on the nineties UK skateboarding scene

Merriment is part of the Idler’s mission and this week we release day tickets for the annual Idler Festival, a three-day party featuring appearances from many of our favourite people.

The Idler Festival’s roots go back to the nineties when Victoria founded the Clerkenwell Literary Festival, which brought together the wilder edges of books publishing.

In the noughties we set up camp at the Port Eliot Festival, and launched the Idler Academy of Philosophy, Husbandry and Merriment, with lessons in grammar, dancing and beekeeping to name a few.

That went on for around ten years. But Port Eliot Festival sadly closed a few years ago, so it was time to bring idling to London, which we did thanks to the National Trust’s Fenton House and Gardens in Hampstead.

It’s a great programme, which you can see here.

This week I just wanted to mention one event, which is a talk about skateboarding in the nineties. I was briefly involved in this scene thanks to my first job as a sales assistant at Slam City Skates in London.

That’s where I met skater and designer Ged Wells who designed our snail logo. In two weeks’ time archivist Neil Macdonald releases a lovely coffee table book called Elsewhere, which is a visual and oral history of UK skateboarding, a very creative and entrepreneurial scene, which I credit with inspiring me to start the Idler.

I’ll be talking to Neil about the book and about skateboarding in general, and we’ll be joined by architectural historian Neil Borden. That’s on the Friday.

Live well,

Tom

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A Drink with the Idler

Our next guest on “A Drink with the Idler” is author Sacha Coward who will be chatting to Tom Hodgkinson about queer folklore – the unsung heroes and villains of storytelling, magic and fantasy.

Mark Vernon will also present a new Thought for the Week.

That’s Thursday 21 May, 6pm-7pm.

Find out more and book tickets here. It’s FREE to subscribers – otherwise £7.50.

How to Live Like a Stoic

The May/June 2026 issue of the Idler (#109) is available in Waitrose, Smiths and TG Jones.

Click here for your nearest stockist.