Some of the most exciting thinkers and performers will be joining us for two days and nights of music, ideas and inspiring conversations in the world’s most famous recording studios.

Over the weekend of 5-6 October, here’s what you can expect:

On the Ideas programme, we’ll have 2024 sensation Baby Reindeer’s Richard Gadd on the Netflix drama that shook us all; award-laden author Elif Shafak on who owns the past; the inimitable William Dalrymple on lessons from history; and lawyer and literary phenomenon Philippe Sands on impunity.

Richard Curtis will explore the power of film and TV to change the world and Charlie Brooker will offer his sharp take on truth, technology, and how he masterminds those all-too-terrifying Black Mirror episodes. Bella Mackie (whose How to Kill Your Family spent 47 weeks as a top-ten bestseller) will be discussing dysfunctional families; One Day’s David Nicholls will be in conversation with Kate Weinberg on modern love; Oscar, Bafta and Grammy-winning film director Asif-Kapadia will discuss the power of storytelling, and Vogue Williams and Caroline O’Donoghue will examine fiction, fame and friendships that last.

There’ll be spoken word from World Slam Poetry Champion Harry Baker, stand-up comedy from Lou Sanders and meditation and kirtan (that’s chanting to connect heart and mind) with Manizeh Rimer. For the musically-minded, the legendary film composer Daniel Pemberton will be in conversation with Edith Bowman on writing the scores from Spider-Man to The Trial of the Chicago 7.

And in all three studios, all weekend, there’ll be music: acoustic singer songwriters to folk and R&B. Headliners include Kokoroko, fusing energy, afrobeat and West African style, and Kojey Radical, blending rap, jazz, spoken-word and funk to share melodies and musings on country, community and culture.

For the past two summers KITE has taken place in Oxfordshire, with the likes of Ai Weiwei, Grace Jones, Tina Brown, Hot Chip, Elizabeth Day, Simon Sinek, Alastair Campbell, The Pretenders, George the Poet, Candi Staton and Joan Collins as the very best of what a festival of music and ideas is all about.

This year we make the same rash promise of inspiration, laughter, and a whole lot of dancing. Tickets are on sale now.