Helen Lewis will no longer be speaking at Greenbelt Festival 2026
7.1.2026
With regret and apology from us, Helen Lewis will no longer be speaking at this year’s festival.
Following her inclusion in our first lineup names, we received some pushback from our LGBTQ community. We listened carefully and we talked about what we should do.
We went back to Helen with a revised pitch for her involvement which we hoped might enable us still to explore her ideas in the New Gurus and The Genius Myth (which is why we’d asked her to come to Greenbelt) but also make space to discuss her writing on gender – all in conversation with a longtime trans Greenbelter.
It wasn’t what she’d signed up for, or why we had initially invited her and, understandably, Helen declined our reshaped invitation. We regret putting Helen in this difficult position.
Right now, there isn’t much more to say other than sorry to all those we’ve hurt and that we are committed to learning and doing better.
We know we have damaged the hard-earned trust of some LGBTQ Greenbelters, and our trans community in particular. We are committed to rebuilding that trust.