How the Light Gets In Festival 

Over the half term,  Lower Eighth (Year 12) pupils from both St Paul’s and St Paul’s Girls’ School attended the renowned How The Light Gets In philosophy and music festival.

This is the biggest festival of its kind in the world and takes place annually in Hay-on-Wye, near the famous literary festival. Staying in Baskerville Hall – of Sherlock Holmes fame – pupils were immersed in a dazzling array of ideas, intellectuals, comedy, music and glorious sunshine.

Firebrand Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek was the name with the biggest pull, but there were plenty of other famous philosophers, scientists, politicians and artists available for pupils to interact with in the disarming atmosphere of tents and pop-up cafés.

As usual, the festival produced an excellent programme of special talks and workshops for A Level pupils: Helen Czerski presented us with a revolutionary way of understanding the oceans, and, using nose plugs and jelly beans, philosopher Barry Smith completely changed the way in which we understand our senses. Other highlights included debates around AI and ChatGPT; biochemists getting terribly excited about a new theory of consciousness; diplomats arguing about how the Russian invasion of Ukraine will end; and the crowd surfing of drum and bass artist, Mr Bruce.