AuthorHouse UK reviews would like to salute
the Hay Festival. The festival was first run in 1988, but over the last 25
years it has now grown to run 15
festivals across five continents and has been established as a leading forum
for international writers, at which they are encouraged to exchange ideas across
cultural and genre boundaries in an environment of understanding and mutual
respect.
From
around the kitchen table
The festival was conceived around a kitchen
table in the small Welsh country town of Hay on Wye, set in the beautiful
Brecon Beacons, by actor Norman Florence and his actress wife Rhoda Lewis. Norman, who had worked
with Sam Wanamaker on the Globe project, had the desire to create an event of
national and global standing. Rhoda Lewis just wanted a party. Thus
the character of the Hay Festival was born. There is even an apocryphal
story that the initial funding was 100 pounds worth of poker winnings.
The
Town of Books
In fact the literary roots of the festival
go back further to bibliophile Richard Booth, who
started his first second-hand bookshop in 1961 in the town’s old fire station. Then in
1965 he bought the local picture house and turned that into a bookshop.
The “town of books” had begun. Soon Hay became home to over thirty
second hand bookshops and one bookshop for new books.
On April Fools Day in 1977 Booth staged a publicity
stunt in which he declared Hay-on-Wye to be an 'independent kingdom' with
himself as its monarch. The tongue-in-cheek prank no doubt helped Hay become
the mecca for bibliophiles from across Britain and beyond, thus preparing the
ground for the great literary festivals to come.
Is
it some kind of sandwich?
In 1989 the renowned author and ex-husband
of Marilyn Monroe, Arthur Miller, was invited and he famously asked;
“what is
Hay-on-Wye, is it some kind of sandwich?”
Since its
inception, the festival has been held at a variety of venues in and around Hay,
including the local school, until 2005 when it moved to a central spot just adjacent
to the town. The festival has also had
many leading media sponsors including, The Guardian, The Sunday Times and the
present incumbent, The Telegraph Media Group.
In its 25 years the Hay
Festival has brought together writers and literati from around the globe to discuss
and swap stories in this beauty spot of the Welsh Borders. Hay celebrates great
writing and ideas from all corners of the world and from all backgrounds: from scientists
and environmentalists to poets and comedians to novelists and lyricists.
AuthorHouse UK leaves
the final words to Bill Clinton who stated that the Hay festivals are,
“The Woodstock of the mind”
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