Woodstock for the mind.
That’s how President Bill Clinton described the Hay Festival. The annual literary festival has been held in the Welsh town of Hay-On-Wye for the last three decades, bringing together the most powerful and influential minds in the world. Think TED, with more sheep and less WiFi.
How did a sea-slug expert capture Britain’s most notorious serial killer?
Where can you hide a 19-mile wide crater?
What is it like to be imprisoned in solitary confinement for 44 years?
These were just some of the questions asked and answered in tents amongst the Brecon Beacons. I travelled down from Edinburgh to spend the entire week at Hay. I attended over thirty talks throughout the week. Here were are other questions these talks asked and sometimes answered.
- How did a sea-slug expert capture Britain’s most notorious serial killer?
- How can calculus reveal hidden secrets?
- How do we fix the establishment?
- What makes humans unique?
- How to survive an intimate memoir?
- Can Britain come together again?
- How did women make the west rich?
- Why should we save the woodlands?
- How do you uncover family secrets?
- How does a comedian understand humanity?
- Where can you hide a 19-mile wide crater?
- How do you tell the history of illiterate sex-workers?
- How did a gay rugby referee come-out to his parents?
- How do we make education equal?
- How do we solve a global healthcare staff shortage?
- How do we make the NHS workforce future proof?
- How does the world think?
- What is it like to be imprisoned in solitary confinement for 44 years?
- Why are Japanese gardens so beautiful?
- What does a curriculum for 2070 look like?
Hay Festival Website: https://www.hayfestival.com/wales/home
They have events around the world. Check them out.
Justin Lines 