Culture meets conversation as Hay Festival 2024 unveils an impressive lineup, featuring headliners like Geri Halliwell-Horner, Dame Judi Dench and Gary Lineker with rare gets like Anaïs Mitchell, alongside new additions like South To South and the inaugural Sports Day.
The deeper cuts at this year’s Hay Festival
Kicking off on Thurs 23 May, join author of Tir, Carwyn Graves along with eco-designer and philosopher Alan Marshall totour the Welsh landscape (verbally)on the Wye Stage. Moving into Fri 24 on that same stage, you can then catch speakers as varied as Zeinab Badawi discussing African history from an African perspective, photographer Billie Charity with photographic muse and drag artist Boo La Croux on their project capturing the people of Hay, and podcasting and musical maverick Blindboy Boatclub [pictured] diving into 12-century Irish colonisation.
Meanwhile on the Global Stage, Diary Of A Wimpy Kid creator Jeff Kinney presents The No Brainer Show, while BBC Radio Wales presenter and now-author of Wales: A Hundred Records Huw Stephens is in conversation with colleague and reggae singer Aleighcia Scott.
The Wye stage on Sun 26 plays host to Horrible Histories and You’re Dead To Me funnyman Greg Jenner for a dose of Totally Chaotic History on Ancient Egypt, while the Spring Stage stays in the present day for Christopher Haworth’s examination of deepfakes in pop music, Stolen Voices.
Mon 27 has a treat for Broadway babes when Anaïs Mitchell –creator of Hadestown, cult American musical fresh to the West End –graces the Global Stage, while Tue 28 has more sobering programming on the Discovery Stage: We Need To Talk About Kevin’s Lionel Shriver, Channel 4 correspondent Matt Frei asking Can America Be Saved? in this year’s Christopher Hitchens lecture, while the Exchange Marquee goes Inside #BookTok.
Musicians with a lot to say and play close things out. Johnny Flynn & Robert Macfarlane are in concert on the Global Stage on Wed 29; the only woman to bag International DJ Of The Year, Smokin’ Jo, gets the evening of Fri 31 jumping on the Meadow Stage with her You Don’t Need A Dick To DJ autobiographical talk before proving it with a set. This is followed on the same stage by fellow record spinner Rob Da Bank on Sat 1 June – chatting about the festival he co-founded, Bestival, and ending with another DJ set.
What’s new at Hay this year?
New highlights include South To South, wherein Hay Festival’s Mexican, Colombian and Peruvian teams lead conversations about issues affecting the Global South; the first-ever Sports Day on Wed 29, which has less to do with egg and spoon races (sadly) and more to do sports personalities exploring the Olympic spirit (this being an Olympic year) alongside free activities; Wales Today does it what it says on the tin, with WNO, BBC Wales, Swansea, Cardiff and Aberystwyth Universities and Literature Wales’ Welsh Book Of The Year participating; Lviv BookForum marks Ukraine’s largest book festival Hay debut; Food demos are also on the menu for the first time this year, and lastly, On Air gives you the chance to be at free live recordings of BBC Radio and Sounds heavy-hitters.
Hay Festival’s Writers At Work 2024
Literature Wales and Hay Festival are again teaming up, over the course of the festival itself, for the Writers At Work creative development programme. Ten chosen applicants will engage with Hay over its 10 days by attending talks and workshops, allowing them to experience its bustling atmosphere to the fullest – and also make connections with movers and shakers in the literary world. Isabel Adonis, Zoë Brigley, Rachel Dawson [pictured], Taylor Edmonds, JL George, Megan Angharad Hunter, Dylan Huw, Joshua Jones, Katie Munnik and Hammad Rind are 2024’s chosen crop, with the programme being overseen by Welsh author Tiffany Murray – whose memoir of her early life in and around Monmouthshire recording studio Rockfield, My Family And Other Rock Stars, is also published this month.
Info: here
Hay Festival’s big names for 2024
James Blunt
Loosely Based On A Made-Up Story
Global Stage, Mon 27 May. Info: here
Theresa May
The Abuse Of Power
Global Stage, Mon 27 May. Info: here
Dame Judi Dench [pictured]
(Un)scripted: The Man Who Pays The Rent
Global Stage, Wed 29 May. Info: here
Gary Lineker
Sports Day: The Rest Is Lineker
Global Stage, Wed 29 May. Info: here
Geri Halliwell-Horner
Rosie Frost And The Falcon Queen
Discovery Stage, Wed 29 May. Info: here
Bonnie Tyler
Straight From The Heart
Discovery Stage, Thurs 30 May. Info: here
Keri Russell
(Un)scripted: Fictional And Real Diplomacy
Global Stage, Sat 1 June. Info: here
Toby Jones
(Un)scripted: The Post Office Horizon Scandal
Global Stage, Sat 1 June. Info: here
Hay Festival, various locations, Hay-On-Wye, Thurs 23 May-Sun 2 June.
The festival site is FREE to enter, events are priced individually.
Info: hayfestival.com
words HANNAH COLLINS
