Hay Festival
A sure sign of success and coming of age is when imitation sets in. So with the Hay Festival’s 21st birthday and the launching of the Alternative Hay Festival. This alternative trying to feed off the main event doesn’t have anything as bourgeois as named organisers. Their events just happen. It reminds me of the Gwent Anarchists who regularly sent me invitations to their meetings.
The Hay Festival really does go from strength to strength and all credit to Peter Florence for his superb organisational and inter-personal skills.
Over the years I have been privileged to hear Jane Fonda, Helena Kennedy, Colin Jackson, PD James, Bill Bryson, Bill Clinton, David Starkey, Ronnie Corbett and President Carter to name but some of the highlights.
It is a great economic boost to the area as well as a cultural one and even if the weather this year has been more Glastonbury than Timbuktu (Hay’s twin town) spirits were not dampened.
The alternative festival is an amusing diversion, to demonstrate that they even got Arthur Scargill along but there is only one genuine article!
