The Splendour in the Grass forums were a fantastic inclusion into last year’s event and in 2014 they’re back.
The keynote interview is Paul Gilding with Lindsay ‘The Doctor’ McDougall: Life on Earth in 2030 – Fun, Frazzled or F%*ked?
‘The Earth Is Full.’ This is how Paul Gilding describes the state of our stressed planet in his gripping TED talk that has already clocked up more than a million views. So what does the former global CEO of Greenpeace, acclaimed author, and now one of the world’s leading advisers on a sustainable economy believe the future holds for us? Will a solar revolution destroy the oil and coal industries and have us all driving electric cars in clean cities that are globally connected by technology? Or will climate change overwhelm us and drive conflict and collapse? Or will it all just be a big, confusing mess?
Despite all scientific evidence indicating disaster, Gilding remains an unstoppable optimist. Confident we can survive what’s coming, he believes humanity will rise to the occasion, facing change on a scale and at a speed incomprehensible today. Join him as he chats to Lindsay ‘The Doctor’ McDougall (Triple J, Frenzal Rhomb) about life on Earth in 2030 and contemplates ‘the end of shopping’.
Big Brother
Another great event will be a discussion panel: Big brother is definitely: Why should you care about Edward Snowden and his leaks?
The panel for this one comprises Thomas Drake, Jesselyn Radack, Senator Scott Ludlam and Dr Suelette Dreyfus, with host Patrick Gray.
Why should stunning revelations by former US National Security Agency contractor-turned-international-asylum-seeker Edward Snowden about mass internet and phone surveillance matter to you? If you’re not a terrorist or a criminal, why should you care whether the Google searches you key in, the Facebook updates you post, the gmails you send and the Skype calls you make might be monitored? How much can you trust governments, their agencies and digital media and telecommunications corporations when they operate in secrecy?
In an Australian first, join our expert panel of former NSA-officer-turned-whistleblower Thomas Drake, whose own leaks inspired Snowden and provided him with the blueprint of what not to do to avoid being caught, attorney Jesselyn Radack, the director of National Security and Human Rights with the US Government Accountability Project who defended both Drake and Snowden, Australian Greens’ communications spokesman and campaigner for internet freedom Senator Scott Ludlam, technology academic and writer Dr Suelette Dreyfus, who co-wrote with Julian Assange the cult classic Underground that has since been made into two hit movies, and award-winning security journalist Patrick Gray, as they uncover the truth about the mass collection of ordinary citizens’ data and why your privacy matters.
Women of Letters
A wonderful panel will be the Women of Letters: Splendour Edition V with Lauren Mayberry (Chvrches), Courtney Barnett, Gossling, Jennifer Boyce (Ball Park Music), Nkechi Anele (Saskwatch), Liz Drummond (Little May) and musical comedians Alice Fraser and Genevieve Fricker and hosts Marieke Hardy and Michaela McGuire.
Writers Marieke Hardy and Michaela McGuire are back to celebrate the beautiful lost art of letter writing with their annual special festival edition of this lovely literary salon. Join this all-female star panel of artists as they each narrate their Letter to the Song I Wish I’d Written, hopefully perform it, and invite the audience to pen their own.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
