Sheffield Life, Loss, and Death Festival 2025 is set to return later this year in a bid to develop people’s understanding through conversation.
The month-long festival is organised by ‘Compassionate Sheffield’ and runs throughout May. The festival is currently in the stage of finalising the program and reaching out for partnerships, so they can bring together a mix of experts and people with lived experiences.
Ranging from assisted dying, suicide, men’s loss, LGBT+ experiences, and multi-faith discussions, approximately ten events will be carried out throughout the city.
Nick Deayton, the manager of Compassionate Sheffield, said: “Death is an inevitable and important part of life. And we need to know and learn how to navigate it. The best way of sharing information and developing our understanding is through conversation.”
The first event would be a panel discussion on assisted dying, hosted by the Festival Of Debate, and will educate people about the bill being put through the Parliament.
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He added: ”We ask people to tell us what events they would like to see or participate in. This has given us many ideas about the types of events people are interested in. Our goal is to design the programs based on the community’s needs and what they would like to contribute or deliver as well. ”
Events will take place across the city in venues such as community centres, parks, university buildings, the Showroom cinema, and online.
First started in 2023, it has already attracted nearly 1600 people with 70+ events.
They hope to ‘soften’ the fear of death and encourage people to talk about it freely, and have received a lot of strong feedback over the years.
An attendee from a previous festival said: “I have been struggling quite a bit lately with fear of my own mortality and not knowing what happens when we die, but this session really helped to diminish my worries.”