T-Squared: This is your 2020 Texas Tribune Festival save-the-date

Save the date! I’m excited to tell you that the 2020 Texas Tribune Festival — our 10th annual ideas weekend — will be Sept. 24-26 in downtown Austin. The schedule will be familiar to anyone who’s attended the last two years:

• Opening session the night of Thursday the 24th
• A full day of programming Friday the 25th in venues scattered around the blocks just south of the Capitol
• TribFeast, a gala dinner fundraiser to support nonprofit journalism, and a fun Trivia Night on Friday night
• A full day of programming Saturday the 26th in an array of downtown venues and as part of our free Open Congress festival-within-a-festival
• Closing session Saturday night

It will be a compact, compelling three days of conversations about the biggest issues, the latest headlines, and the priorities of our state and country, featuring the most in-demand speakers from across Texas, around the U.S. and all over the world.

This ought to be an especially good year for TribFest. A momentous election cycle, including a life-altering presidential race, will be in its last lap. A consequential legislative session will be just over the rise — with redistricting looming. Questions about the future of education funding, health care access, immigration policy, renewable energy and criminal justice reform remain unanswered. The big cities of Texas face growing challenges as the population of urban counties grows seemingly without limit. The changing politics of the suburbs are a white-hot topic. What becomes of rural Texas — what happens to rural hospitals and rural schools, the prospects for economic development west of Interstate Highway 35, the push to bring broadband to far-flung corners of the state — should be of interest to all of us.

We’ll address these topics and more in our sprawling program, in panel discussions, one-on-one interviews with newsmakers and policymakers, podcast recordings and more. We mean for this to be the biggest and best of our festivals yet, and we want you there. Tickets don’t go on sale until May 4, but you can sign up here to get alerts from the #TribFest20 team. We can’t wait to see you in September.