Festival of Education

The Festival of Education in the UK was founded in 2010 and has since grown into one of the most important events on the education calendar. EdFest, as it is known, has developed into a global series of thought-leading events, with festivals in China, Washington DC and Bangkok. It will launch in the Netherlands and Spain in June 2026, and we plan to bring the Festival to a series of other key locations around the world, bringing the global education community together to lead pioneering education for future generations.

EdFest UK takes place over two days in July each year, when Wellington welcomes several thousand attendees, almost all of whom are active teachers and leaders in schools. Typically, just over 80% of these are from UK state schools. Others come from all over the UK and the world to converge on Wellington to see and hear the extraordinarily rich variety of keynotes, talks, panels, interviews and debates covering everything that is important and current in education. The 16th Festival of Education will take place at Wellington College on 2 and 3 July 2026. Our international festivals follow a similar format, suited to their locations and education communities.

The Festival is just that – a festival and not a conference. Bob Geldof described it as “Glastonbury for educators”. There is a light and fun feel to the event: live music, street food, ice cream and deckchairs. Content is partly curated by the Festival team to bring in some of the best-known and most influential voices in education, and we welcome around half of our content through the speaker application process.