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Before I Die: A Festival for the Living about Dying
York  11-17 May 

This week-long festival will combine poetry, music and theatre with death cafés, practical workshops, thought-provoking public lectures and expert panels, all designed to encourage open discussion about death, dying and bereavement and to showcase research in this area from across the University. There are nearly 30 events, some on campus, others in town. Most events are free but almost all require tickets in advance: go to beforeidiefestival.co.uk for a full programme and ticketing information.

Festival highlights include:

  • A Good Death? (13 May, RCSS)  Experts led by the chaplaincy team at the University will explore what a ‘good death’ means in a morally and religiously pluralistic society.

  • Death cafés (12,13,14 May, Friargate Quaker Meeting House. A chance to discuss attitudes and questions about death in a welcoming environment over tea and cakes. The cafés will be led by a range of experts including University of York researchers, clinicians, a palliative care specialist and the founder of an alternative funeral business.

  • Thinking about Death (15 May, RCSS).  A set of five public lectures on children and grief, music at funerals, death and decison-making, the definition of death and family experience of death after coma.

  • Recording loss: The use of photography as a method for documenting death and dying (15 May, RCSS).  An analysis of different accounts of death and dying by different photographers and Colin Gray will reflect on the death of his parents as represented in his collection of photographs, In Sickness and Health.