Woodstock of the mind is how former US President Bill Clinton described the Hay Festival of Arts and Literature, a literature festival held in Hay-on-Wye in Wales
Woodstock of the mind is how former US President Bill Clinton described the Hay Festival of Arts and Literature, a literature festival held in Hay-on-Wye in Wales ONE of the things that struck me most about the audience at Hay is that it was almost uniformly white. Just the previous day I had stood at a traffic light in London with Shrabani Basu, author of Spy Princess. As we waited for the light to turn green, we noticed that not even one in 10 cars had a white driver.
England is widely recognised as a multi-cultural, welcoming society. But here at Hay, there were hardly any Asians or blacks. It seemed clear that the enormous droves of immigrants were economically connected to this lovely island country but perhaps not culturally.
The theme of the Hay Festival this year is exploration and debate of a range of current issues such as the deepening economic crisis, the dawn of a new era in America, environmental concerns which have moved higher up the agenda, and increased challenges to our civil liberties.
On Friday I watched Sky Arts anchor Mariella Frostrup interviewing some of the festival participants. Sandi Toksvig made us laugh non-stop for more than an hour. We marvelled at the premiere of Still Life, made by The Rural Media Company after the unit spent a year in the town of Bromyard getting to know groups of people at various levels and working together to enact and produce it. Though Hay is to books more or less what films are to Cannes, other forms of entertainment dominate and The Guardian review cover story "Have we abandoned serious books?" pointed out that clever book promotions may now be more important than clever books.
The Hay Festival was first held in 1987 and by 2001, Bill Clinton had described it as "The Woodstock of the mind". Later, Henry Moore is said to have mistaken Hay-on-Wye for a sandwich but soon realised it was more appetising. The festival has now acquired such a strong brand identity that Hay festivals are held in other cities too Cartagena, Segovia, and this year in Nairobi and Beirut as well.
Hay, a small town in Wales so close to the English border that it's apparently more practical to address letters sent there with the caution, "via Herefordshire", is situated just south of the river Wye. Hay was reincarnated some years ago as "the town of books" and is strewn with second-hand bookshops. At the top of a hillock is a little Norman castle. Legend has it that this castle was rebuilt in one night by the wife of William de Breos II, Maud de St Valery, carrying the stones in her apron. William, a treacherous Norman Marcher Lord, fell foul of King John and fled to France in 1212 where he died as a result of poverty. Maud and elder son were meanwhile starved to death by being walled alive. Their sad home does look a bit as if it had been rebuilt overnight.
Climbing down the dilapidated steps years ago, we first encountered the treasures of Hay in the castle courtyard. Enormous shelves lined it, containing books of every description. We walked around in a daze of happiness, carrying the books in our apron and dropping the money in a box near the gate. We found many other "Honesty", antiquarian and specialty book stores in Hay.
In the week ahead, Hay will feature David Crystal, Kamila Shamsie, Chris Patten, Amit Chaudhuri, David Simon, Henning Mankell and many others. Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, will announce the winner of the Michael Ramsey Prize 2009. Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks and Reverend Dr. John Polkinghorne will headline a series of conversations about the resurgence of faiths. Popular playwright Alan Bennet will read from his diaries on Friday evening, but this event has been fully booked for months, even before the festival programme was final! At the end of the week, Amartya Sen will discuss Adam Smith and the current financial crisis.
The weather in Wales gets terrible propaganda. The last two days have been cold and windy but beautifully clear and bright. Getting accommodation at Hay during the festival is a nightmare so book well in advance, or carry a tent.
The nearest railway station to Hay-on-Wye is at Hereford, 20 miles away. If you're driving, it is situated on the A348 and you will pass sheep-dotted, luscious-green rolling downs, cliffs, gorgeous narrow gorges, and winding rivers. The festival is well signposted, though if you follow signs reading "Hay for sale" you may arrive in a farmyard.
