A three day festival of idling. Expect philosophical conversations, wandering minstrels, dancing lessons, beekeeping, gardening, calligraphy, ukulele & harmonica lessons & the Idler Good Stuff market.

Running from: Fri 13 at 18:00, Sat 14 at 12:00 & Sun 15 Jul at 12:00.

Fenton is a Queen Anne merchant’s house in the heart of Hampstead village. Its elegant reception rooms and bedrooms will set the scene for Idler Academy tutors to host salons where you can drop in and ask questions over a glass of wine or a cocktail. Go on a walk with Oldie editor Harry Mount and ask him about London’s architecture. Sit on the bed in the master bedroom with Idler Agony Aunt Virginia Ironside and ask her advice. Learn about philosophers from Plato to Alan Watts under the apple trees in the orchard. Lounge on the lawn to virtuoso piano from the Penguin Café’s Arthur Jeffes.

Michael Palin will also be in philosophical conversation with Tom Hodgkinson, and there will be harpsichord recitals, calligraphy classes and lots of lounging about in the house and its beautiful walled garden.

Headliners include: Sally Phillips, John Lloyd, Carole Cadwalladr on Cambridge Analytica, David Graeber on bullshit jobs, Murray Lachlan Young, Rowley Leigh, Ben Moor, Matthew Green, wine expert Will Lyons, Laura Freeman, Edith Hall on Aristotle, Fiona Sampson on Mary Shelley, Paul Kildea on Chopin’s piano and much more to be announced.