Hasta La Ideas

The inaugural Cheltenham Design Festival kicks off this weekend, with talks from Stefan Sagmeister, Simon Waterfall, Bruce Duckworth, Lucy Holmes, Jenny Coe, Sir John Sorrell, Ptolemy Mann, Stephen Bayley and the festival president, Sir John Hegarty.

The event will take place at Cheltenham’s Parabola Arts Centre from April 20 – 22. Friday begins with Bruce Duckworth of Turner Duckworth, followed by talks from the likes of Paul Priestman, Simon Waterfall and Sir John Sorrell, the latter tackling the tricky question: Is there a future for design?

Saturday begins with landscape designer Dan Pearson. Stefan Sagmeister is in conversation with CR’s Patrick Burgoyne at 11.45 (tickets just £10) and returns later in the day to talk about ‘Design and Happiness’. Patrick will also chair a session on ‘secret places, hidden design’ with Jenny Coe, Lucy Holmes, Ptolemy Mann and Nick Bell. At the end of the day Hegarty will debate ‘Who’s designing the future?’ with Kenneth Grange while Stephen Bayley looks at the lessons of the pitch.

Sunday has a session on Animation with Aardman as well as investigations into the future of air travel, car design and mobile games.

Tickets cost from just £5 to £20 per session, with most around £8. A day pass costs just £30, students £10.

For full details, visit the Festival site here

For those of you who are always complaining that design conferences are too expensive, this is an absolute bargain. Support it and they may be able to do it again next year…