The full program for the October 21-23 event was launched Thursday night by AFoI founder and chairman Greg Mackie, who established a not-for-profit organisation to oversee the festival after the State Government withdrew funding last year.

“We look forward to making news and breaking records as citizens flock in their thousands to enjoy this major expression of civil society – a politician-free zone,” Mackie said

“Of course, we hope that our elected representatives will join us – but as audience members and not as grandstanders.

“The 2016 Adelaide Festival of Ideas is a tonic for the worst of our spin-driven, soundbite culture.”

Joining previously announced speakers including American environmentalist Erin Brockovich, former politician and writer Barry Jones, Robyn Layton QC, festival dedicatee Phillip Adams and former US ambassador to Australia Jeffrey Bleich are author and philosopher Raimond Gaita (Romulus, My Father), neuroscience expert Dr Fiona Kerr, economist and entrepreneur Nicholas Gruen, poet and screenwriter Nick Drake, and SA-based writer and 2016 SA Young Australian of the Year finalist Manal Younus.

Sessions will explore a diverse range of topics including the devastating disease that could destroy the world’s citrus industry, the impact of technology such as driverless cars on cities of the future, what we will do when robots take our jobs, global innovations in ageing, and Australian identity in the Asian century.

The Festival of Ideas is being presented as part of the SA Government’s Open State event, with the full program available for viewing here.