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Speaking &
Public Talks

From festival stages to conference halls, on gathering, transformation, and the future of how we come together.

About Jenna's Speaking

Jenna Ansell brings nineteen years of experience building and directing transformational gatherings to her work as a public speaker. Her talks are grounded in practice: she has lived, produced and led the experiences she speaks about, shaped by a deep intellectual curiosity about how and why human beings gather.

She speaks on stages at festivals, conferences, and symposia, and in conversation on podcasts and panels. Her style is warm, rigorous and visionary: she takes seriously both the extraordinary potential of gatherings and the honest limitations of what they can achieve.

Jenna Ansell speaking

Speaking Themes

Five areas of
deep expertise

01
The Future of Festival Culture
What does the next generation of gathering look like? How do we move beyond the utopian promises of festival culture towards something more honest, more rooted, and more genuinely transformational?
02
Remembering and Reviving the Ancient Ways
The world's oldest ritual technologies: ceremony, rite of passage, council, song, are finding new relevance inside modern festival culture. What are they, why do they work, and how do we steward them well?
03
Transformational Festival Culture 2.0
The conscious festival movement promised personal and collective transformation. What has it actually delivered? And what does the next evolution look like?
04
Collective Healing and the Power of Gathering
Beyond individual peak experience, how can gatherings facilitate genuine collective healing, and what is the difference between the two?
05
Land, Lineage and Belonging
On the role of place, indigenous wisdom, and ancestral memory in creating gatherings that truly matter. The land we gather on shapes us. The lineages we carry into the circle change what becomes possible. Belonging is not built by programme alone.

Past Talks

Recent
appearances

Lightning in a Bottle Festival
California, USA, May 2025
"Remembering and Reviving the Ancient Ways Through Modern Festival Culture"
Colibri Festival
Corfu, Greece, June 2025
"Remembering and Reviving the Ancient Ways Through Modern Festival Culture"
I AM YOU Festival curated by Deer Jade
2025
"Transformational Festival Culture 2.0"

Upcoming Talks

On the
horizon, 2026

Lightning in a Bottle Festival
California, USA, May 21, 2026
"At the Threshold: Ancient Wisdom & the Future of Transformational Gatherings" in conversation with Isis Indriya
Confirmed
Conscious 500 / LU·MI·NA
Norway, June 20–21, 2026
Confirmed
GOAT Festival
Portugal, July 2–6, 2026
Confirmed
Medicine
United Kingdom, August 12–17, 2026
Confirmed

Media

In
conversation

Podcast, December 2025

Life is a Festival Podcast

Episode 181: "Beyond Festival Utopia", in conversation with Eamon Armstrong

Why festival utopia never arrived; liminal spaces and temporary autonomous zones; land, ritual and indigenous wisdom; collective healing; rites of passage and why gathering still matters.

▶  Listen to Episode

Watch

Jenna on
stage

Jenna Ansell at Lightning in a Bottle
▶

Video coming soon

Jenna is being filmed speaking at Lightning in a Bottle, California, in May 2026. This page will be updated with the full talk once it is available.

Lightning in a Bottle · May 2026

Book Jenna as a Festival Speaker

Ready to bring Jenna
to your stage?

Jenna is available for festival keynotes, conference panels, podcast conversations, and facilitated workshops. To discuss a speaking enquiry, get in touch and she will respond personally.

Send a Speaking Enquiry