Chris Hawkins at a muddy Hay Festival 2014
In the first of three special Hay Diaries, 6 Music DJ Chris Hawkins reveals his love affair with the Hay Festival and shares his experiences this year - apparently it's not all literature, you might brush up against the odd sporting legend too.
My first ever visit to Hay in
2007 began bleakly - it rained heavily. A group of us stayed in the only
holiday home available at short notice - a bleak house that accommodated six and
on day one involved a grim drive through an apocalyptic storm to a place which
seems to be claimed by both the English and Welsh. Though it tinkers on the
border of the two, Hay On Wye, is in Powys, Wales, just north of the Black
Mountains and is the National Book Town of Wales. I’m certain there are more
book shops in the tiny town of Hay than remain in central London and each of
them is fabulous, curious and unique. They burst with pride and although they
are a year-round tourist attraction, they do best business during the Festival
of Literature and the Arts.
During that first visit to the festival, and thus the picturesque town,
our gang (who had previously attended the V music festival together) arrived on
site assuming we would collect wristbands and head straight for the bar. Lesson
1 about Hay was quickly learnt: you don’t pay for it. What you actually do, is
pay for the events you want to attend and so with small change from £10, we
found ourselves at an audience with Barry Cryer. Like most images of UK
festivals, it was muddy under foot, the rain lashed on the canvas above but
Cryer was magnificent and was just one of the star names on the bill again this
year. I’ve not missed a Hay since that first experience.
Lesson 2 was also learnt in year one - check the programme and book what you
want to see as soon as possible. The festival takes place just outside the town
centre in a field no bigger than a football pitch. There are tents of varying
sizes (1,750 capacity for the likes of Benedict Cumberbatch) while niche events
are more like a high powered village coffee morning discussing anything from
alternative energy to the science of Star Wars.
As a 6 Music DJ and passionate music lover, the first event I plumped for this
year was an afternoon’s conversation based on Philip Wallings book, Counting
Sheep, a celebration of the pastoral heritage of Britain. Obviously. I now
know there are 7 million sheep in Wales, that a fleece these days is worth £15
whereas in medieval times would have been worth the equivalent of £150 and
that, according to Wallings, “Sheep are not stupid but they are sheep and they
do what sheep do and they are very good at it."
Chris Hawkins and Ossie Ardiles
With a locally made ice cream in between, I went from sheep talk to a stellar line-up of footballers debating the world’s most high profile sport. I cannot believe I was there for this… Geoff Hurst, Osvaldo Ardiles (pictured above), Ricardo Villa and Alan Smith. All in one tent. As a massive football fan this was an hour of heaven (Lesson 3 at Hay is to make the most of every session - few events are longer than an hour). Geoff Hurst is legendary for being the only man to score a hat trick in a World Cup Final (I’m pictured with him below). So how did he and the team celebrate their victory? Hurst revealed the evening was spent at Danny La Rue’s nightclub in London’s West End, saying, “It was a Saturday night and I wasn’t sure if we’d get in.” This, despite the fact that he had just won the World Cup. When asked if he secretly always hopes that England will get knocked out early, to keep his incredible record intact, he modestly replied: “No. This year they will do well. Quarter Finals probably."
After 10 days of the festival, Hay shares one significant similarity with any other British festival. Mud. But with every event undercover and the promise of better weather, the leaden skies have done nothing to dampen the prospect of an exciting, inspiring and thought-provoking weekend which kicked off with the Radio 2 Chris Evans Breakfast Show coming live from the site with the final of this year's 500 WORDS this morning. And as well as Chris' show, audiences will be able to enjoy coverage across BBC TV, Radio, Online and globally with BBC World News.
Chris Hawkins is a DJ on 6 Music
- Chris Hawkins and Gideon Coe will be hosting a show live on BBC Radio 6 Music from the BBC Tent at Hay on Sunday 1 June, 2.00-4.00pm
- Read more Hay blogs on the About the BBC Blog
- There's more from Hay at the BBC Radio 2’s 500 Words Final including the winners of this years Competition as revealed during the Chris Evans Breakfast Show this morning.
