Festival of Dangerous Ideas

The festival was presented at Sydney Opera House for eight years.

When created, the festival aimed to bring leading thinkers and culture creators from around Australia and the world to discuss and debate some of the most important issues of our time.

In the inaugural 2009 event, the festival's opening address was given by atheism advocate Christopher Hitchens on the topic of “Religion Poisons Everything”, which was countered by Australian Roman Catholic Cardinal George Pell in a session titled “Without God We Are Nothing”.[2]

The 2010 program featured talks by Geoffrey Robertson, Alan Dershowitz, Christian Lander and Lenore Skenazy.

The 2011 Festival featured Julian Assange, Jonathan Safran Foer, Alexander McCall Smith, Jon Ronson, Slavoj Žižek, Mona Eltahawy and Philip Nitschke.

The 2012 Festival speakers included: Sam Harris, Germaine Greer, Brian Morris, Tara Moss, Illan Pappe, Jason Silva, Shiv Malik, Ed Howker, Jane Bussmann, Jesse Bering and Tim Harford.

In 2013, speakers included Arlie Hochschild, David Simon, Hanna Rosin, Evgeny Morozov, Vandana Shiva, Dan Savage, John Safran and Peter Hitchens.

In 2014, speakers included Sir Salman Rushdie, Nadya Tolokonnikova and Masha Alekhina (Pussy Riot), Masha Gessen, Steven Pinker, Elizabeth Kolbert, Rebecca Newberger Goldstein, Malcolm Fraser, Lydia Cacho, Alissa Nutting, Tim Flannery and Mark Latham.

In 2015, the seventh Festival of Dangerous Ideas was made up of solo sessions and panels featuring speakers such as Tariq Ali, Naomi Klein, Peter Greste, Gabriella Coleman, Sarai Walker, AC Grayling, Marc Lewis, Paul Krugman, Laurie Penny, Jon Ronson, Eric Schlosser and Gideon Raff. For the first time, FODI Melbourne also took place as part of the Melbourne Writers Festival.

In 2016, the final Festival of Dangerous Ideas was held at the Sydney Opera House. It featured speakers such as Jesse Bering, Andrew Bolt, Molly Crabapple, Alicia Garza (Black Lives Matter), Henry Rollins (Black Flag) and Lionel Shriver.

In 2017 the Sydney Opera House announced that it was no longer presenting the Festival of Dangerous Ideas. It announced ANTIDOTE: a festival of art, ideas and action featuring speakers such as Janet Mock, Reni Eddo-Lodge, Tamika D. Mallory (Women's March on Washington) and Micah M. White (Occupy Wall Street) and artists such as Noemi Lakmaier, Anne Collod and Kaleider.

In 2018 the Festival of Dangerous Ideas was independently presented by The Ethics Centre on Cockatoo Island.[3]

In 2018, upon the Festival at Cockatoo Island for two days of discussions on internet sub-cultures, fascism, privacy and LSD. Plus, there was a special event at Sydney Town Hall with Stephen Fry. Speakers included Niall Ferguson, Pankaj Mishra, Megan Phelps-Roper, Zeynup Tufecki, Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, Ayelet Waldman, Germaine Greer, Toby Walsh, Nikki Goldstein and Xanthe Mallett.

The 2018 festival also saw the inaugural Festival of Dangerous Art which included artists Betty Grumble, Garth Knight and Riley Harmon.

The 2014 Festival was criticised due to the links between the St James Ethics Centre and companies that profit from the mandatory indefinite detention of asylum seekers.[4]

Australia’s original provocative ideas festival was set to return in 2020 for its 10th festival. April 3 to 5 was to be a milestone weekend at Sydney Town Hall, themed around ‘dangerous realities’.

The 2020 Program included: Unforgivable – Spinifex Gum, Seethal Bency, Dujuan Hoosan, Daisy Jeffrey, Audrey Mason-Hyde, Dylan Storer Wrongful Justice – Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton, Hamish Macdonald The Uninhabitable Earth – David Wallace-Wells The Butterfly Effect – Jon Ronson The Tyranny of Merit – Michael Sandel, Ann Mossop Surveillance States – Edward Snowden, Simon Longstaff The Hitch – Roxane Gay, Ann Mossop The World We Choose – Peter Singer, Jane McAdam, David Wallace-Wells, Angie Abdilla, Simon Longstaff The Truth About China – Kevin Rudd, Yaqiu Wang, Vicky Xiuzhong, Jason Yat-Sen Li, Peter Hartcher Manufacturing Inequality – Pasi Sahlberg, Ann Mossop Political Correct-Mess – Van Badham, Kevin Donnelly, Osman Faruqi, Chris Kenny, Sarah Dingle The Future Is History – Masha Gessen, Matt Bevan Tech: Capitalism’s New Clothes – Evgeny Morozov, Toby Walsh You Can’t Handle The Truth – Megan Davis, Ann Mossop Editing Humans – Sam Sternberg, Simon Longstaff Climate Change Is A Crime – Kajsa Ekis Ekman, Matt Bevan Ageing Is A Disease – David Sinclair, Norman Swan Dangerous Futures – Emma Jane, James Halstead, Lucas Lixinski, Michael Richardson, Katherine Kemp Hosting Humanity – Evgency Morozov, Mark Pesce, Matt Beard Buying Babies – Kajsa Ekis Ekman, Sarah Dingle, Andrew West Nuclear Deterrence Works – Stephan Frühling, Simon Longstaff The Consciousness Lie – Joel Pearson, Rob Brooks Ethics Of The Apocalypse – Carl Smith, Matt Beard Give It Away Now – Matt Beard PIG – Kaleider My Greatest Period Ever – Lucy Peach

On 16 March, the 2020 Festival of Dangerous Ideas was officially cancelled due to the Coronavirus pandemic as the NSW Minister of Health issued a ban of non-essential public gatherings of over 500 people.

SOH 2011 Festival of Dangerous Ideas Sydney Morning Herald 27 September 2011

• Audio Coverage in BBC's The Forum. 11 October 2009.
• YouTube channel
• Festival program
• Garry Maddox, SMH
• Steph Harmon, Guardian Australia