Chelsea Arts Festival Day One Review: Everything That Happened At First Culture Festival

Yesterday, Chelsea Arts Festival kicked off… C&TH’s editorial team recap everything that happened on day one.

Here’s What Happened At Chelsea Arts Festival 2025, Day One: 18 September

Rupert Everett in Conversation with Hannah MacInnes

Rupert Everett at a book signing after his Chelsea Arts Festival talk with Hannah MacInnes, meeting a canine fan

The crowd was riotous as Rupert Everett teased a run for Conservative MP in his home constituency of East Wiltshire. The 66 year old actor and writer was in conversation with journalist Hannah MacInnes about his debut collection of short stories, The American No. The collection, which MacInnes described as eclectic, comprises the stories he has pitched to film and TV studios throughout the years without success. But he went on many fascinating tangents, too, giving juicy nuggets of insight into his long career – which spans My Best Friend’s Wedding to an upcoming part in Rivals season two – as well as some quips about would-be political ambition. Will it be so? Everett doesn’t think he’s got the politician’s knack for thinking on his feet, but if you’d seen him charming ladies, babies and dogs at the subsequent book signing, you wouldn’t be quite so sure. By Tessa Dunthorne

George Monbiot meets Ian McEwan

Climate catastrophe and ‘metaphysical gloom’ dominated this intellectual chat between journalist George Monbiot and 18-time novelist Ian McEwan. The latter’s latest is, in the author’s words, an attempt at a history of the 21st century. And is there light within that gloom? McEwan sincerely hopes so, nudging a captivated audience towards an appreciation for our presence (which is on the cusp of, but not yet totally subsumed by, destruction), which his own protagonist has a nostalgia for. The author himself admits he can’t watch Shakespeare without missing the Bard (‘it’s close to love’), and recently reread Tess of the D’Urbervilles and felt an unquenchable nostalgia for Hardy’s Wessex. Our world is different – but not totally. We can still walk the fells Wordsworth and Coleridge trampled, and we must cherish (and protect) that beauty while we still can. And that’s the point of What We Can Know: we can enter the gloom, or we can pursue the myriad alternative futures instead. By Olivia Emily

Launch party at Saatchi Gallery

Actor Mathias Lefevre and singer Cinderella Balthazar

The red carpet was rolled out in front of the Saatchi Gallery to welcome 400 guests to the opening celebration of the festival. Stars from page, stage and screen, including LionHeart, Cinderella Balthazar, Evanna Lynch, Kathy Lette and Yomi Adegoke, arrived in CAF branded Blacklane cars to drink Telmont Champagne and Léoube rosé and chat about London’s most exciting cultural happening. Above the buzz, we heard photographer Kurt Alan Benjamin, who’d just flown in from LA and will be bringing the largest unseen archive of Beatles and Rolling Stones photographs to the UK next year, say that the festival would rival Art Basel, while Jasmine Hemsley revealed that she’d originally studied art and design. Hugh Seaborn, CEO of Cadogan, addressed the room saying that the festival would not only become a really important legacy for Chelsea but also an iconic cultural legacy for London itself. By Lucy Cleland.

What’s Happening Today?

Stephen Fry, Lyse Doucet OBE, Dennis Morris and Kathryn Hughes take to the Cadogan Hall stage to bring Chelsea’s famous residents back to life at Blue Plaques Talk Back Live (10.30am, Cadogan Hall, tickets here).

Then it’s over to Saatchi Gallery where Omar Karim, Freya Salway, Dr Shama Rahman and Suhair Khan will delve into the future of arts and culture in the age of AI (12.45pm, £12.50pp, tickets here) before Supacell producer Sheila Nortley teams up with Davina Forbes-Williamson to delve into the making of the hit London-centric show (2.45pm, £12.50pp, tickets here). 

In the afternoon, renowned author Elif Shafak will also be interviewed by the BookBar team, while actor Lucas Jones will deliver a performance of his viral poetry (both sold out).

Elsewhere prolific and beloved author William Boyd will take to the stage to delve into his latest novel, The Predicament, with journalist Olivia Cole (1.30pm, Cadogan Hall, from £12.50pp, tickets here). Raising Hare author Chloe Dalton will join Gareth Howell-Jones at John Sandoe Books in the evening (6.30pm, £15pp, tickets here). 

Sloane Square and the surrounding streets will come alive with live music and ballet on the bandstand, plus roaming street performers – all free and unticketed. If you fancy getting creative, Art Play is hosting painting sessions all afternoon (7.30pm, from £12pp, tickets here).

Come evening, London’s legendary jazz club Ronnie Scott’s will be taking over Cadogan Hall with a funk and soul night from Ashton Jones (from £12.50pp, tickets here), while down the King’s Road Chelsea Theatre will host a special fashion show from ReLovEd and Hanway Collective in homage to London Fashion Week from 8pm. But first, it’s happy hour (6–7pm).

For a full rundown of Chelsea Arts Festival 2025, visit our full day by day guide here.