Month: February 2013

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Tickets For Sixteen Hay Events On Sale

Tickets have go on sale today for the first sixteen publicised events at this year’s Hay Festival.   They include the Noah and the Whale gig and the talks by Rupert Everett and Dawn French that we posted about earlier in the week.  In addition seats are now available for:

Quentin Blake

The illustrator and writer, whose collaboration with Roald Dahl and his own work, which includes Clown, Zagazoo, Mrs Armitage and the recent Beyond The Page, will give this years’s Hay Library lecture.

John McCarthy talks to Sandi Toksvig

McCarthy was kidnapped and held hostage in the Lebanon for five years. In the years since his ordeal, he has travelled through Israel and East Jerusalem, from the shores of the Mediterranean to the the Negev Desert. He will discuss his book “You Can’t Hide the Sun; A Journey Through Israel and Palestine.”

Christy Moore

The singer songwriter will play from his Folk Tale album, the latest in his long musical collaboration with Declan Sinnott.

Hans Blix

The Swedish politician and diplomat and former  Head of the International Atomic Energy Agency led the search for Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq between 2000 and 2003.  He will be interviewed by Jon Snow.

Elif Shafak

The author of Honour, The Bastard of Istanbul and The Forty Rules of Love will talk amongst other things about her fascination with the silent letter of her Turkish alphabet – the ‘Ghost G’.

Muhammad Yunus

The Nobel Peace Prize-winning pioneer of microfinance and founder of the Grameen Bank will talk to Nicholas Stern.

Carl Bernstein

The journalist who broke the Watergate story discusses the second-term Obama administration, the end of the Vietnam War and JFK’s assassination.

Mary Robinson talks to Helena Kennedy

The former President of Ireland and UN Human Rights Commissioner runs the Climate Justice foundation, which works for the millions of poor across the world who are most affected by climate change.

Rowan Williams and Neil MacGregor

A conversation about religion and imagery with the former Archbishop of Cantebury and the Director of the British Museum, and author and presenter of A History of the World in 100 Objects.

Amadou & Mariam

The legendary Malian duo bring their ‘exquisite, intergalactic Afro-pop’ (Time Out) to Hay.

Dara Ó Briain

The Irish comedian and presnter brings his Craic Dealer show to the 2013 Hay Festival.

John le Carré

The creator of George Smiley and author of spy thrillers The Constant Gardener and The Honourable Schoolboy makes his first appearance at the Hay Festival and talks about his work to Philippe Sands.   A new novel A Delicate Truth is out in May.

Philip Glass

A new opera by Philip Glass, The Perfect American imagines the final years of Walt Disney’s life, including mythical imaginings of Abraham Lincoln and Andy Warhol.   The composer will discuss this his new work and will be joined by ENO Artistic Director John Berry and members of the production team. The opera is directed by Phelim McDermott.  Glass will also give a solo piano recital featuring music from his classic repertoire.

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Dawn French and Rupert Everett on the Bill for Hay

Dawn French Rupert Everett

A raft of new events have been announced in the last 24 hours for this years’s Hay Festival.  They include appearances by actor Rupert Everett and comedian Dawn French, although both are entertainers, actors and successful writers.  Everett’s first memoir ‘Red Carpets And Other Banana Skins’, his first hilarious and charming memoir which details his accounts of filming with stars such as Madonna, Sharon Stone and Julia Roberts, was a bestseller. He will be talking to Paul Blezard about volume two, ‘Vanished Years’ which documents a pilgrimage to Lourdes with his father, a misguided foray into reality TV and takes the reader on a journey from New York to Moscow and Phnom Penh.

Dawn French, is also a best-selling author and she will be at Hay to discuss her new comic novel, ‘Oh Dear Silvia’ as well as her bestselling memoir ‘Dear Fatty’ – “I am perfectly happy with how I look and I always have been. I’ll always be a fat girl and I am happy with that” she has said.

Music events just announced for this year’s festival will include the British premiere of Philip Glass’s new opera, The Perfect American, and a concert by Noah and The Whale.

Tickets for the new shows are on sale now to Friends of the Hay Festival and will go on sale to the general public from tomorrow; Wednesday 27 February.

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Noah and The Whale at 2013 Hay Festival

Noah and the WhaleMusic becomes a more important feature of the Hay Festival every year.  Last year the organisers unveiled a new music venue near the town centre at the Castle ground and about a mile away from the main in Dairy Meadows just outside the town.  The festival has seen several major music acts perform over the year including Bob Geldof, Laura Marling and PJ Harvey.   Noah and the Whale fronted by Marling’s erstwhile squeeze Charlie Fink, will be at the Hay Festival this year, performing on the opening night of May 23rd.

The appearance forms part of their UK tour which will follow the release of a new album, Heart of Nowhere, on May 6th.  The album is the band’s fourth record and follows 2011’s platinum-selling Last Night On Earth.  The band’s full line up is Charlie Fink on vocals and guitar, Tom Hobden on violin,  Urby Whale on bass, Fred Abbott on guitar and Michael Petulla on drums.

 

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Ireland is Home to the Latest Hay Festival

This year will see a new Hay Festival opening in the town of Kells in County Meath.  It will take place over three days from 28th–30th June.  Kells is the original home of The Book of Kells a 9th-century gospel manuscript famous throughout the world and now housed at Trinity College Dublin.   Kells is a town with a population of 5,000 located 40 miles North West of Dublin.

The first names confirmed for the Kells Hay Festival are Booker prize winners John Banville and DBC Pierre.   The 25 year old Hay Festival has now spawned 15 literary festivals around the globe.

Kells Chamber of Commerce President Ger Gaughran said: “Kells Heritage Festival is a similar event and could draw on the wealth of speakers that hit Hay each year”.  She added “we sent over a submission asking organisers to consider Kells as a location for a festival”. Members of the chamber visited Hay last year.  “During our visit we met with founders and directors of the festival and found that they had great interest and knowledge of Kells and were very positive towards our idea. Aside from the festival, we think Kells would be the perfect location to develop an Irish ‘town of books,’ as a national centre for all genres of literature, old and new.”