It’s less than two weeks until the official announcement of the full programme for the 2012 Hay Festival. About this time each year, we produce a list of people we are confident will be in the programme. We don’t guarantee the accuracy but we do go to some effort to make sure the names are right. They come from a variety of sources including official Hay channels. So here is our latest update with 55 names for the 2012 Hay Festival.
- Adonis
- Bill Bailey
- Harry Belafonte
- Belleruche
- Max Boyce
- Simon Callow
- Lauren Child
- Eoin Colfer
- Jeremy Cooper
- Cressida Cowell
- Nick Crane
- Jack Dee
- Polly Dunbar
- Phil Earle
- Chris Evans
- The Gentle Good
- Ghostpoet
- Luke Harding
- Nick Harkaway
- Michelle Harrison
- Rolf Heuer
- Charlie Higson
- Hidden Orchestra
- Matthew Hollis
- Richard Holloway
- Robin Ince
- Suzy Joinson
- David Lammy
- Jonathan Lee
- John Lewis-Stempel
- Ian McEwan
- Zara McFarlane
- Hilary Mantel
- Cerys Matthews
- Jonathan Meades
- Tim Minchin
- Patrick Ness
- Karl Ove Knausgaard
- Paper Aeroplanes
- Phil Rickman
- Michael Rosen
- Axel Scheffler
- Marcus Sedgwick
- Elif Shafak
- Darren Shan
- Francesca Simon
- Jon Snow
- Andy Stanton
- Jeremy Strong
- Bryn Terfel
- Steven Vaughan
- David Walliams
- James Watson
- Jacqueline Wilson
- Patrick de Witt
MAKING HAY at the Hay Festival 
Fantastic, lots of great names here. What a line-up so far. Looking forward to seeing Billy Bailey, pure comic gold.
wouldn’t want to put the old puss among the pigeons, but am i reading right – less than 15 women on that list? really?
Juliette – I wouldn’t read too much into it at this stage, these are just 55 names from around 600 and perhaps men self promote more?
Agree Rob. Have always thought that Hay produces a fantastic programme, with equal representation etc. Heard about another act last night that will be playing Hay on June 4th: Oi Va Voi. Brilliant band, saw them in 2005, absolutely magical night.