Overview
Antidote — the Sydney Opera House festival of ideas, action and change — will return for its third round this August, bringing with it an all-star lineup of the world's leading minds and pioneering creatives. They'll facilitate and lead the necessary conversations of our time over the weekend of August 31 and September 1.
This year, the festival has partnered with the Judith Neilson Institute for Journalism and Ideas, which will co-curate two sessions focusing on authoritarian environments, free speech and debates on society's most controversial issues. Other Key topics in this year's program include 'fake news', national identity, the weaponisation of social media, creative responses to political and social turmoil and the surveillance of 'big data' and the resurgence of binge cultures.
Included in the massive international lineup is Sonic Youth's guitarist and vocalist Kim Gordon, Cambridge Analytica whistleblower Christopher Wylie, Rappler founder Maria Ressa (one of TIME Magazine's People of 2018), Black Lives Matter activist and co-founder of Campaign Zero DeRay Mckesson, two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Steve Coll, and Russian cyber security journalists (and co-founders of the respected Agentura. Ru) Andrei Soldatov and Irina Borogan.
Kim Gordon, shot by David Black.
Also making appearances is Thae Yong-ho, the former North Korea deputy ambassador to the United Kingdom; Mausi Segun, the executive director of Human Right Watch's Africa Division; and Lina Attalah (TIME Magazine's New Generation Leader), co-founder of Egyptian newspaper Mada Masr.
Australian heavy hitters to join the party include ABC International Affairs analyst Stan Grant, The Guardian journalist Brigid Delaney and The Sydney Morning Herald's national editor Tory Maguire, who will host a live recording of the podcast Please Explain.
Antidote's popular workshop series will return, too, featuring a collective tarot reading and a 'how to' hairdo tutorial for dads. And Sydney artist Jason Phu has been commissioned to create a public performance work, which features a "procession of masked 'spirits' protesting against humanity's impact on the earth". Watch out for that one.
Antidote 2019 will take over the Sydney Opera House on Saturday, August 31 and Sunday, September 1. For full lineup, details and tickets, visit the festival website.