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Your Full Guide To The Festival Of Dangerous Ideas 2026

30th Jun 2026
Written by:
Eloise Luke
Contributor | Urban List
  • Festivalgoers gather outside Carriageworks during the Festival of Dangerous Ideas, with crowds dining, cycling and exploring the precinct beneath the festival's signature orange-and-black branding.

Every August, Sydney hosts one of the country's most thought-provoking festivals—Festival of Dangerous Ideas—and this year's lineup is set to be the biggest yet.

Returning from 20–30 August, the globally renowned event is expanding to 10 days for the first time, bringing together more than 100 speakers, artists, writers, academics and changemakers to tackle some of the biggest questions facing the world today.

Across 115 sessions, audiences can expect conversations that don't shy away from the uncomfortable. Artificial intelligence, democracy, misinformation, censorship, religion, climate change, morality and identity are all on the agenda, with this year's program built around the theme Revelation.

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What Is The Festival Of Dangerous Ideas?

Presented by The Ethics Centre, Festival of Dangerous Ideas has spent more than 15 years bringing together some of the world's leading thinkers to unpack complex issues through live talks, debates and cultural experiences. This year's edition is its biggest yet, expanding beyond its traditional Carriageworks weekend to include Sydney Town Hall and cultural institutions across the city.

The 2026 program also introduces three major new streams alongside its talks program. Dangerous Art brings immersive installations and live performance into the mix, Dangerous Films pairs provocative cinema with expert introductions, while Dangerous Excursions opens rarely seen archives, museum collections and behind-the-scenes spaces usually closed to the public.

Who Is Speaking At The Festival Of Dangerous Ideas?

A packed audience fills the grand auditorium of Sydney Town Hall during the Festival of Dangerous Ideas, with the heritage interior illuminated in dramatic red lighting.

Leading the lineup is one of the world's most influential literary figures, Salman Rushdie, returning to Australia for the first time since the 2022 attack that reshaped his life. His opening keynote, The Price of Ideas, will explore censorship, belief and the consequences of defending free expression.

He's joined by an impressive international lineup that includes Nobel Peace Prize-winning journalist Maria Ressa, Hedwig and the Angry Inch creator John Cameron Mitchell, digital rights activist Cory Doctorow, Pussy Riot founding member Maria Alyokhina, political commentator Peter Beinart and philosopher Hanno Sauer.

Closer to home, some of Australia's sharpest thinkers are also taking to the stage. Stan Grant, Richard Flanagan, Jess Hill, Peter Singer, Marcia Langton, Waleed Aly, Amy Remeikis, Antoinette Lattouf, Malcolm Turnbull and Bob Carr are among the local names unpacking everything from political paralysis and free speech to Australia's place in an increasingly uncertain world.

What's New At The Festival Of Dangerous Ideas?

A panel of speakers sits in the round during an intimate Festival of Dangerous Ideas discussion, surrounded by audience members in a dark theatre setting.

This year marks the biggest expansion in the festival's history, with new experiences moving well beyond traditional panel discussions.

Standout commission HEAP transforms the Carriageworks foyer into a giant archaeological dig, inviting visitors to walk barefoot through earth while uncovering artworks exploring digital labour, sovereignty, environmental collapse and healing.

The festival's new film program pairs provocative cinema with introductions from scholars, screening everything from The Piano and Godzilla to Zero Dark Thirty, Shortbus and a documentary examining the attempted murder of Salman Rushdie.

Some of the conversations we're already bookmarking include Killing Culture, where Rushdie, Maria Alyokhina and John Cameron Mitchell debate whether dangerous art still exists; Porn Without People, exploring the ethical questions surrounding AI-generated pornography; The Last Humans, asking whether belief in artificial intelligence is becoming more dangerous than the technology itself; and Against Goodness, which challenges the idea that moral certainty is always a virtue.

How To Get Tickets To The Festival Of Dangerous Ideas

Early-access multipack tickets go on sale for Ethics Centre subscribers from 9am on Tuesday 30 June, with general public multipack sales opening from 9am on Wednesday 1 July. Single-session tickets will be released throughout July, while livestream tickets will become available in August. You can access tickets online once they become available. 

Image credit: Festival Of Dangerous Ideas | Supplied