Welcome to the Festival of Politics 2013 – the Festival where people and politics come together – in the unique venue of the Scottish Parliament building at Holyrood. This year’s Festival is sharp, relevant and brings together the best thinkers and commentators in their field to discuss the big issues of the day. And for the first time ever, we have a Festival Café Bar where Festival-goers and panellists can linger, mingle and chat.

This year’s theme is Scotland’s Place in the World and we offer a programme that will stimulate discussion about the future of Scotland and the society we wish to live in. We will provide a space to explore issues such as defence, immigration, the power of small nations, economics, identity and Europe. You can join in these debates here at Holyrood or feed in your views online through our Facebook and Twitter channels.

If you are interested in Scotland and politics, you will not want to miss the Festival of Politics 2013.

Our doors are open and we look forward to welcoming you.

Presiding Officer

Tickets can been booked via this website and found within the Programme page by selecting the 'book now' option.

Copies of the new 2013 Festival programme including our Gaelic version can be downloaded below.

• Festival of Politics Programme (1.3MB pdf)
• Festival of Politics Programme - text only version (343KB pdf)
• Festival of Politics Programme - large print text only version 18pt (336KB pdf)
• Festival of Politics Programme - Gaelic version (373KB pdf)
• Festival of Politics Programme - Gaelic version text only (118KB pdf)