Brand new festival KITE announces line-up including Grace Jones, Gregory Porter and Richard Curtis

A new festival from the team behind Love Supreme is set to premiere in Oxfordshire this summer, mixing music and ideas; giving equal parity to artists and speakers - KITE festival.

Trailblazing musical powerhouse Grace Jones will lead the music programme. Joining her is multi-Grammy Award-winning megastar Gregory Porter - who recently presented us with the GOLD award at the ARIAS - will be performing at the festival too, along with gospel and R&B legend Mavis Staples. Soulful guitarist Oscar Jerome and the afrobeat driven Seun Kuti & Egypt 80 will also be performing at the inaugural festival.

The Ideas Programme will feed the public’s increasing appetite for knowledge, debate and discussion, with speakers such as former foreign secretary David Miliband, Comic Relief Founder and King of British Romcom Richard Curtis OBE, one of the country’s most popular columnists Marina Hyde and the esteemed children’s author Sir Philip Pullman will be hosting a series of in-depth ThinkIn conversations. At KITE everyone is encouraged to get involved and have their say in the ThinkIn Village, helping shape conversations around the climate emergency; technology and surveillance; the political system; the future of health; culture and the arts; gender and sexuality and more.

Author, screenwriter and filmmaker Jon Ronson (The Men Who Stare At Goats, Okja, So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed) will discuss culture and identity, filmmaker and women’s activist Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy (Pakistan’s Taliban Generation, Saving Face) whose accolades include two Academy Awards and six Emmy Awards will host a conversation around culture. Penguin Cafe will bring their truly unique and immersive sound experience to the festival and broadcaster, poet and playwright Lemn Sissay MBE will host a Thinkin conversation.

Tony Blair’s former right-hand man and journalist Alistair Campbell will speak on mental health following the release of his book Better To Live: How I Learnt To Survive Depression.

The brand new festival will be taking over the grounds of Kirtlington Park in Oxfordshire from 12-14 June 2020. Find out more here.