The This Is Not a Gateway Festival could easily be subtitled The Trouble With Cities with its exploration of inequality in cities. But that might not give a nod to the extent of thought that flows through the festival, which for its fifth and final outing will take aim at White Supremacy and White Privilege.

This Is Not A Gateway Festival is a platform for ‘critical insights and proposals related to our ever-increasing urbanised lives’.

The festival is independent to ‘ensure rigour and freedom of thought’. Plus, it is free to apply, free to participate and free to attend the two-day event. This year its two overarching themes are The Academic Industrial Complex along with White Supremacy and White Privilege. Plenty more issues will be touched on, discussed and dissected.

There’s an impressive and wide-ranging list of participants and a very full programme, which takes place over the first weekend in November.

This Is Not A Gateway (that’s TINAG to you) has been holding a festival since 2008, but it also publishes books and holds regular salons in its quest to address the issues cities face and create.

TINAG was formally founded in 2007 by Deepa Naik and Trenton Oldfield. One of its goals ‘to draw attention to and attempt to rectify the injustices and inequalities resulting from much recent urban development’.

The organisation has a catchphrase all of us could aspire to, ‘independent, critical, rigorous and productive’. And promises ‘critical insight into our urbanised lives’.

This Is Not A Gateway Festival takes place at the Bishopsgate Institute, London on Saturday, November 1 and Sunday, November 2, 2014. The days run from 11am to 8pm,and you are advised to arrive 10-15 minutes before talks to ensure a seat. The event is free, but donations are welcome.