Ian McMillan's Free Thinking blog

It's Saturday lunchtime at the Free Thinking Festival and I've just finished co-hosting the Young Ranters event here at The Sage. If I say so myself, it was a triumph! We had eight young people each presenting a two minute rant on a subject of their choice, ably hosted by Radio Newcastle's Alfie Joey. My job was simple; I had to toot the Radio 3 hooter at the start and end of each rant and then comment on each of them and bring them together at the end with the aid of a flipchart and a pen.

I confess that my worry before the event was that the rants might be unfocussed or that they might not be about anything in particular; in the end they were beautifully constructed and moving and passionate. We had rants about car drivers, homework, being an asylum seeker and missing your family because they were abroad.

As I began to summarise the rants it struck me that we should do it as a poem, so we made it into a rhyming piece with a chorus and it became a bit of a singalong. As it was happening I thought: this is the real Free Thinking experience, the exchange of ideas, the mix of people in the room, the sense that none of us have the answers but that we're all on some kind of quest. I'm typing this as I look out over the Tyne from the beautiful Sage centre; later this afternoon I'm presenting the Theory Slam and then tonight I'm hosting The Verb.

And then tomorrow morning I hope to be able to recreate my experience of this morning; walking in the early mist along the river, passing a group of guys fishing and being passed by runners and bikers and turning over in my head all the things I'm learning this weekend. Last night's recording of Words and Music made me think again, about the possibilities of putting words with music and how they can interact...

I think next year we should do a Free Thinking week!