In the third and final of his Hay Diaries (if you haven't already, be sure to read his first and second installments), Chris reports on the unthinkable: the sun shining at this year's festival.
With over 700 events over the course of the last two weeks including star names like Stephen Fry, Benedict Cumberbatch, Anthony Horowitz, Julia Donaldson and Paddy Ashdown Hay festival is a unique melting pot of big brains, alternative thinkers and brilliant performers.
Few festivals can claim such a beautiful setting, nestling in the hills on the mid-Wales border and on this final weekend of this years festival the sun shone, picnic tables were brought out and deck chairs gave the weary a chance to read, reflect or snooze off lunches.
With subjects ranging from scientific innovation to punk rock, Hay offers individuals, families and friends an opportunity to learn, engage and reflect on new ideas and benefit from others knowledge.
Chris with Kate O'Hearn, author of the Pegasus series
After many years of attending the festival, my 4 year old daughter’s highlight this year was celebrating the Gruffalo’s birthday in the company of it’s creator, Julia Donaldson. She also went to a reading of the kids book, Shifty McGifty. The story was told by the writers themselves, Tracey Corderoy and Steven Lenton with help from a budding bunch of eager toddlers.
I am now au fait with Shifty the dog’s world…he’s a robber dog who gives up a life of crime to pursue a cupcakes business. As a parent, that kind of imagination coupled with the performance element is joyous. Or at least it will be until about 8 o'clock when I fear the expectancy will be to produce props and musical accompaniment for bedtime stories.
I was hoping to attend a debate entitled ‘Is the planet full?’ but unfortunately it was full. Really. On this final weekend of Hay 2014 hearing the BBC hit comedy Rev star and writer Tom Hollander discuss the extraordinary success of the show is fascinating. They were joined by the writer of the newly published Rev Diaries, John Canter. Canter recalled his agent contacting him about writing the book…”John, we’ve got a project for you” to which the atheist author replied, “There is a God!” When Hollander was asked by an audience member how they cast the show (with the likes of Oliva Coleman and Miles Jupp) he said it was largely thanks to a fantastic casting agent and also because, “people do things cos they like the writing.” They could have cast Rev a thousand times over.
BBC Wales' Bethan Elfyn also presented from Hay this year.
Kate Adie passionately told the story of women’s plight during the first World War and shared a wonderful story about her grandmother. As the Germans were overhead in a zeppelin, Adie’s grandmother was charged to lay down and take cover. The zeppelin’s gondola was low enough for the German’s to make eye contact with the Brits below…Adie’s grandmother was furious. Furious that the Germans were so low to the ground that they would have without doubt caught slight of her petticoat. It’s charming anecdotes like that, enjoying a live performance on Bethan Elfyn’s BBC Radio Wales stage and knowing that you will always see or hear something random, unexpected or occasionally mind-blowing, that makes Hay special for me.
Here we are in the hills, basically in the middle of nowhere, listening to authors talk about their books; scientists share their theories and philosophers philosophising. It is a unique and extraordinary coming together of very clever people on stage sharing their knowledge, thoughts and oaccisiaonnly, crack-pot theories.
Glastonbury may boast magical leylines, Hay meanwhile offers up line after line of inspiration. To paraphrase Tom Hollander, people like writing. And that writing has left me feeling brighter, smarter and more intelligent…for a couple of days, at least.
Chris Hawkins is a DJ on 6Music
- Read Chris' other blogs from Hay - Marvellous in the Mud and Planning Radio.
- About the BBC's Hannah Khalil has collected links to some of the Hay coverage produced by BBC Arts in her weekly blog round-up.
- Jon Jacob was backstage for Radio 2 during the 500 WORDS Final broadcast live from Hay last week - read about his experiences on the About the BBC Blog.
- Radio 4's Broadcasting House was also at Hay for a special programme - journalist Simon Maybin explained how the production team sought contributions from the festival audience.
- Director of BBC Arts Jonty Claypole also reflected on the weekend he spent at the Hay Festival.
- Highlights from BBC Arts at Hay are available on the BBC Arts website.
- Follow @BBCArts on Twitter.
