BBC Line-up for Hay Festival Tent 2015
Today the BBC and Hay Festival unveiled the line-up for this year’s BBC tent at Hay Festival 2015 (Thursday 21 to Sunday 31 May). Part of a major three year global partnership with Hay, announced last year by Director General Tony Hall, the BBC Tent and venues across the site will host a series of free events and live recordings of the organisation’s flagship shows. There will also be coverage of the festival’s greatest writers, thinkers and performers across its programmes on radio, television and online.
Published: 24 April 2015
‘Hay, just like the BBC Proms, has become a great Summer tradition and thanks to our new partnership, everyone’s invited to join in.'
• New BBC Radio 4 drama to be created at Hay Festival
• Jaqueline Wilson to introduce an exclusive screening of CBBC’s Hetty Feather
• Behind the scenes of The Archers with editor Sean O’ Connor
• BBC Radio 2’s Vanessa Feltz to present Jeremy Vine Show live at Hay featuring Sheila Hancock
• Get Creative, learn to write poetry with BBC Radio 3’s Ian Mcmillan
• From Stephen Fry to Harpist - Catrin Finch and Children’s laureate Malorie Blackman star-studded line-up in week of BBC Radio 3 live broadcasts and concerts
• Colm Tóibín in conversation and a screening of Imagine… Colm Toibin
• Historian Dominic Sandbrook to discuss and show clips from latest BBC Two series Modern Britain
• Poet Simon Armitage and director Susan Roberts on the making of the new BBC Four film Black Roses: The Killing of Sophie Lancaster;
• BBC Wales Patrick Hannan Lecture at Hay for first time with Laura McAllister Professor of Governance at University of Liverpool and Chair of Sport Wales
• BBC Radio Wales and BBC Radio Cymru to broadcast live across the week
• Horizons popular new music project from BBC Wales and Arts Council Wales returns to Hay
• 15th Anniversary of the Blue Peter Book Awards anniversary event hosted by Katie Thisleton
Today the BBC and Hay Festival unveiled the line-up for this year’s BBC tent at Hay Festival 2015 (Thursday 21 to Sunday 31 May). Part of a major three year global partnership with Hay, announced last year by Director General Tony Hall, the BBC Tent and venues across the site will host a series of free events and live recordings of the organisation’s flagship shows. There will also be coverage of the festival’s greatest writers, thinkers and performers across its programmes on radio, television and online.
BBC One, BBC Two and BBC Four will have screenings and Q&As, whilst BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio 4 and BBC Wales will all broadcast live from Hay with BBC Radio 4 News also reporting on events across the week. There will be appearances and performances from well-known presenters and guests including authors Germaine Greer, Stephen Fry, Irvine Welsh, Malorie Blackman, Anne Enright, Kazuo Ishiguro, Yuval Harari, Jacqueline Wilson, violinist Rachel Podger, pianists Ivana Gavrić and Tom Poster; cellist Guy Johnstone; and the Elias String Quartet.
BBC Radio 2
Vanessa Feltz will present a special version of the Jeremy Vine Show live from Hay Festival. As well as reporting on the highlights of the festival she will be interviewing Sheila Hancock as part of the popular series What Makes Us Human.
BBC Radio 3
BBC Radio 3 will be broadcasting a week of programmes live from Hay including: CD Review, Free Thinking, In Tune, The Verb, World on 3, and Lunchtime Concerts. Amongst the stellar line-up of guests, the programmes will feature Stephen Fry, Germaine Greer, children’s laureate Malorie Blackman, BBC Wales Poet Laureate Gillian Clarke, Writer Irvine Welsh, acclaimed violinist Rachel Podger, pianists Ivana Gavrić and Tom Poster, cellist Guy Johnstone, Tinariwen, the Elias String Quartet, harpist Catrin Finch and Violinist Rachel Podger (amongst others). BBC Radio 3 and the Arts and Humanities Research Council will also hold a session launching the New Generation Thinkers 2015; a scheme which aims to find the next generation of broadcasters of academic work.
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 will host a number of sessions with live broadcasts and behind the scenes features. Highlights include a chat with The Archers’ Editor, Sean O’Connor, on what happens behind the scenes in Ambridge. Radio 4 will also broadcast an original drama by Glyn Maxwell which will be recorded at Hay. A number of Radio 4 programmes will be also broadcasting from the tent; Start the Week, The Kitchen Cabinet, Four Thought, The Life Scientific, Broadcasting House and Front Row.
BBC Radio Wales and BBC Radio Cymru
Live broadcasting across the week from BBC Radio Wales and BBC Radio Cymru. Laura McAllister, Professor of Governance at University of Liverpool and Chair of Sport Wales will also deliver the BBC Wales Patrick Hannan Lecture. Horizons, the exciting new music partnership between BBC Wales and Arts Council of Wales, will also return to Hay with the radio-studio-come-music-stage, housed at the retro caravan which had a show stopping debut at the festival in 2014. For the full 10 days of the festival, Hay goers will be able to catch some of the best new artists in Wales playing all styles of music, folk, jazz, rock, country and blues. Horizons will also be hosting a free showcase this year at the BBC pavilion, on Thursday May 28, with headliner H Hawkline, recent signing to the Heavenly Record label. H Hawkline will be supported by Horizons acts Climbing Trees, Dan Bettridge, and Delyth Mclean. www.bbc.co.uk/horizons
BBC Television
In the BBC Tent, Alan Yentob, presenter and Creative Director of the BBC, talks to author Colm Tóibín with a screening of BBC One programme Imagine… Colm Tóibín; writer and poet Simon Armitage and director Susan Roberts discuss the making of the new BBC Four film Black Roses: The Killing of Sophie Lancaster with BBC Four Editor Cassian Harrison; and historian Dominic Sandbrook discusses his BBC Two series on post-war culture, Modern Britain with Controller of BBC Two, Kim Shillinglaw.
Adding to the festival’s children’s programme, Hay Fever, Jacqueline Wilson introduces an exclusive screening of the new CBBC adaptation of her popular children’s novel Hetty Feather, followed by a Q&A with the cast and crew, while CBBC presenter Katie Thistleton hosts the 15th Blue Peter Book Awards and CBeebies megastar Rastamouse makes an appearance in the Children’s Zone.
BBC News
BBC News will report live from the festival on television, radio and online with the BBC News Channel carrying interviews and BBC Arts Online and iPlayer streaming from the site live and on demand.
BBC World News
BBC World News will be recording four sessions for its television literary series Talking Books with award-winning authors Germaine Greer, Anne Enright, Kazuo Ishiguro and Yuval Harari. These events will be broadcast on the BBC World News Channel and in the UK on the BBC News Channel as well as the World Service – potentially reaching over 385 million homes worldwide in over 200 territories. Simultaneously BBC Culture, the online site, will be running interviews and reports on events at Hay throughout the festival.
Get Creative
Following the launch of Get Creative in February by Director General Tony Hall with What Next in this year’s BBC Tent there will also be a number of workshops and talks including a masterclass on how to write poetry with BBC Radio 3 presenter and poet Ian Mcmillan through to a workshop with the Head of BBC Radio Drama, Alison Hindell on writing plays for radio, and a special session on writing for children with Emma Reeves one of the most prolific Children’s writers in British television today. www.bbc.co.uk/getcreative
Tony Hall, Director General of the BBC, said:
‘Hay, just like the BBC Proms, has become a great Summer tradition and thanks to our new partnership, everyone’s invited to join in. This year, the BBC’s contribution ranges from awards to masterclasses; interviews to debates. Some of our best loved programmes are coming from the festival - and there’ll be world-class performances too. You’ll be able to immerse yourself in a world of arts, culture and ideas – where and when you like’.
Peter Florence, Director of Hay Festival, said:
“The BBC is a byword for unparalleled quality and access. We’re thrilled to work together to extend the reach of the writers and artists appearing at the festival, and to welcome listeners and viewers and browsers from around the world to our field in Wales.”
Now in its 28th year, the Hay Festival 2015 programme spans 11 days with over 700 events, blending expert thinkers, world class writers, and award winning entertainers from the stage and screen.
The full festival programme is available to view at hayfestival.org. For tickets, call the box office on 01497 822629 or email [email protected]. For full listings of BBC content at Hay festival visit www.bbc.co.uk/arts
ENDS
Notes to editors
BBC Arts
This announcement is part of the BBC’s ongoing commitment to Arts programming, ‘the greatest commitment to arts for a generation’ as announced by the Tony Hall, Director General, in 2014. The BBC aims to provide the broadest range and depth of music and arts programmes across television, radio and online including landmark seasons in 2015 planned on dance, film, theatre and poetry. The BBC creates non-commercial partnerships with the arts sector that go beyond broadcast, from sharing expertise to widening public engagement in UK arts. In February, GET CREATIVE - a year-long celebration of British arts, culture and creativity designed to encourage participation in the arts was launched in partnership with cultural movement What Next? as well as a huge range of arts, cultural and voluntary organisations across the UK. The BBC aims to provide context through original, fresh discussion and perspectives and is the biggest investor and creator of original arts and music programming. http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts.
About Hay Festival
For 28 years Hay Festival has brought together writers from around the world to debate and share stories at its festival in the staggering beauty of the Welsh Borders. Hay celebrates great writing from poets and scientists, lyricists and comedians, novelists and environmentalists, and the power of great ideas to transform our way of thinking. We believe the exchange of views and meeting of minds that our festivals create inspire revelations personal, political and educational. Hay is, in Bill Clinton's phrase, 'The Woodstock of the mind'.
Founded around a kitchen table in 1987, the Festival continues to attract the most exciting writers, filmmakers, comedians, politicians and musicians to inspire, delight and entertain.
Hay Festival is a registered charity under the Festivals of Literature Charitable Trust: charity company number 3490480 and charity number 1070073. Hay Festival of Literature and the Arts Ltd is a not for profit company registered in England and Wales (company number: 2258780).
Get Creative
Get Creative is a year-long celebration of British arts, culture and creativity - was launched by Director General of the BBC, Tony Hall in February 2015 - in partnership with cultural movement What Next? as well as a huge range of arts, cultural and voluntary organisations across the UK.
The BBC is working closely with an unprecedented number of external organisations for Get Creative, including the founding champions Culture at King’s, Voluntary Arts, 64 Million Artists, Fun Palaces, Cultural Learning Alliance, and Arts Council England. It came about as a result of the Warwick Commission on the Future of Cultural Value, and is the first time amateur and professional arts organisations have come together on a national project of this scale. The BBC is supporting Get Creative with a bigger commitment to arts programming in prime time.
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