Hay Festival

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Recording of The Early Edition at the Hay Festival in May 2008.

The Hay Festival of Literature & Arts is an annual literature festival held in Hay-on-Wye, Powys, Wales for ten days from May to June. Devised by Norman and Peter Florence in 1988, the festival was described by Bill Clinton in 2001 as "The Woodstock of the mind".[1] Since its inception, the festival was held at a variety of venues around Hay, including the local Primary School, until 2005 when it moved to a central location just outside of the town.[2] The Guardian was the main sponsor of the festival from 2002 to 2010, succeeding The Sunday Times. The Daily Telegraph and its associated brands in Telegraph Media Group are the current 3-year sponsors, starting with the 2011 festival.[3]

The festival has expanded in recent years and now includes musical performances and film previews. A children's festival, "Hay Fever", runs alongside the main festival. It has also expanded internationally and sister festivals take place in Nairobi, Dhaka, Zacatecas, The Maldives, Kerala at Thiruvananthapuram, Beirut, Belfast, Cartagena, the Alhambra Palace, Parc Prison in Bridgend and Segovia. In 2009 Hay Festival also took on the ailing Brecon Jazz Festival.

The 2009 festival included writers Carol Ann Duffy, David Simon, Stephen Fry, David Nicholls, Jenny Valentine and Melvyn Bragg, scientists Martin Rees and Sabine Bahn, economists Anthony Giddens, Nicholas Stern, Howard Davies and Danny Quah, comedians Dylan Moran, Dara Ó Briain and Sandi Toksvig, and general speakers David Frost, Desmond Tutu, Rowan Williams and Rhodri Morgan.

The 2012 festival included writers Martin Amis, Jung Chang, Louis de Bernières, Mark Haddon, Mario Vargas Llosa, Hilary Mantel, Ian McEwan, Michael Morpurgo, Ben Okri, Ian Rankin, Salman Rushdie, Owen Sheers, Jeanette Winterson, comedians Bill Bailey, Rob Brydon, Julian Clary, Jack Dee, Tim Minchin, politicians Peter Hain and Boris Johnson, scientists John D. Barrow, Martin Rees, Simon Singh, and general speakers Harry Belafonte, William Dalrymple, Stephen Fry, A.C. Grayling, Germaine Greer, Michael Ignatieff, and David Starkey.

The Hay Festival is one of 11 Welsh winners of The Queen's Awards for Enterprise for 2009.[4]

References

  1. ↑ Hide, Will (2007-01-20). "The world this week: find 'the Woodstock of the mind'". The Times (London). Retrieved 2007-01-26. 
  2. ↑ Staff writer (2005-05-27). "Stars gathering for Hay Festival". BBC News Online. Retrieved 2007-01-25. 
  3. ↑ Singh, Anita (2010-10-29). "Telegraph signs deal to sponsor the Hay Festival of literature". The Daily Telegraph (London). 
  4. ↑ BBC News - Hay Festival wins business honour

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