A Four-Day Festival of Reckoning, Unlearning and Imagination.
An Invitation to the Realisation Festival: 26th June – 29th June
In a world that often feels fragmented and hurried, The Realisation Festival offers a rare invitation: to pause, gather, and explore what it means to live with depth and purpose in uncertain times. From Thursday, 26th June, to Sunday, 29th June, we’ll come together once again at the historic St. Giles House to experience, create and inquire into the challenges and possibilities of this moment.
This is more than a festival; it’s an exploration of what it means to be human in these times. Over four days, we will sing, question, dance, and improvise. Through wholehearted conversations, hands-on workshops, and moments of serious play, we’ll weave a collective inquiry into what it means to live well amidst the complexities of our age. This is a space for both reckoning and renewal where leading thinkers meet artists, improvisers and spiritual seekers, to spark insight and imagination.
At the heart of the Realisation Festival is the concept of Bildung—a lifelong journey of moral, aesthetic, and spiritual growth. The Festival began as a partnership between Perspectiva and St. Giles House in an attempt to contribute to and inform “Bildung for the 21st Century”.
While the term is German, and Bildung as a social-cultural movement flourished in Scandinavia in the 19th Century, one of the original inspirations came from the Third Earl of Shaftsbury, Anthony Ashley Cooper of St. Giles House, who is the many-times great grandfather of the Festival’s co-founder, Nick Ashley Cooper. It was the Third Earl’s notion of “inward form”— which emphasised the cultivation of inner harmony, virtue, and self-awareness as essential to personal and societal flourishing — that contributed to the philosophical foundation for Bildung. Today the Festival seeks to embody this spirit by creating space for participants to come together in the collective inquiry of Realisation, which is our translation of Bildung. We engage with and understand Realisation in three senses:
Getting Real: Reckoning with the state of the world and what is needed.
Becoming Real: Unlearning what is not real, and growing into life.
Making Real: Turning insight and imagination into meaningful action.
This year, we are thrilled to welcome Martin Shaw, renowned mythologist and master storyteller, as one of our keynote speakers. His vivid, soulful storytelling will set the tone for a festival that invites us to dream boldly and connect deeply.
With only 150 participants, the festival is intentionally intimate—a rare opportunity to foster genuine connections and explore big ideas in a supportive, vibrant, and not to mention exceptionally beautiful, setting. Tickets are limited, and they sell quickly. If you feel drawn to join us, we encourage you to act soon.
If you’d like to dive deeper into the spirit and philosophy of the Realisation Festival, we invite you to explore some recent reflections. In “Taking Improvisation Seriously”, Pippa Evans highlights why improvisation is at the heart of the Festival and its connection to the art of living and inquiry. In “What is Different for You Now?”, Leigh Biddlecome curates poignant attendee reflections on connection, transformation, and the Festival’s unique afterglow. And in “The End of the Beginning”, Jonathan Rowson reflects on the Festival’s evolution, exploring how it fosters courage, creativity, and collaboration amidst the challenges of our times. These writings offer a glimpse into the richness of what the Festival holds for those who join us.
