Tom Hodgkinson with news about the Idler Festival and Fenton House

Each year that we put on the Idler Festival, I seem to sink a little lower in the hierarchy. Not complaining, just saying. This week I’ve been mainly driving round London in a hired van, loading books, blackboards, T-shirts, chairs, tables, astroturf and doing what Victoria, Elaine and Delilah tell me to do.

It’s nice to put on a hi-vis jacket, take orders and take pride in loading the van in a sensible fashion. It takes me back to my student holiday job as a removals man for Bishop’s Move in Twickenham, where I felt slightly out of place as a skinny, vegetarian public school boy with bleached hair and a posh voice. (But I have to say that my colleagues were great and made the job a lot of fun. I enjoyed the teasing. At lunch in the greasy spoon I’d order a salad and they’d say: “Tom’s got his rabbit food.”)

Anyway, Fenton House and Garden is looking particularly glorious this year and we’re really looking forward to the weekend.

And this is not least because we’ll be taking a fallow year next year. This will be our seventh festival at Fenton House and we feel it’s time for a break and to do something different in future. Next year we’ll be plotting and planning.

So if you’ve been wondering whether or not to come and see us, bear in mind that this weekend will be the final gathering at Fenton, and the last one before 2028, at least. It will be great to see you.

THE IDLER FESTIVAL STARTS THIS EVENING

This evening’s highlights include:
Jojo Moyes in conversation with Rowan Pelling
How to Live Like a Stoic: Tom Hodgkinson in conversation with Florence Read
Finding Albion: Zakia Sewell in conversation with John Mitchinson
The Queerness of Magical Creatures with Sacha Coward
How Skateboarding Shaped British Culture: Neil Macdonald, Iain Borden & Tom Hodgkinson

The Idler Festival runs from Friday 10 to Sunday 12 July at Fenton House and Gardens in Hampstead, London NW3.

See who else is performing and buy tickets with our festival poster here. Click on the performer’s name for details.

Click here for the festival timetables.

See you there!

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“A Drink with the Idler” returns later this year

How to Live Like a Stoic

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