Stellar line-up for this year's Hay Festival (From Hereford Times)
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Stellar line-up for this year's Hay Festival
9:54am Thursday 12th May 2011 in News
THE annual transformation of the fields along the Brecon road in Hay is well underway as lawns are mown, walkways go down and marquees go up for this year’s Telegraph Hay Literary Festival.
Literature remains at the heart of Hay, which won a 2010 National Tourism Award for Wales as best large event.
But a look at the programme quickly reveals a wealth of events – more than 400 over 11 days – that embrace world affairs and a world of creative thinking and practice.
As the Middle East explodes, Hay provides an unparalleled opportunity to hear Arab voices from the centre of the conflicts – Mohammed ElBaradei talks live from Cairo to Jon Snow about his work as the lead UN weapons inspector in Iraq, and three writers from Egypt and Tunisia who are part of the Beirut39 project – Mansoura Ez Eldin, Kamel Riahi and Youseff Rakha – talk to Ariane Koek about their work and the revolutions in their countries.
The festival will also address conflict and resolution around the globe, with two sessions on freedom of speech including a review of the Bradley Manning case – the US army private who is accused of leaking information to Wikileaks.
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Amnesty International, there will be a performance of Torture Team, an inquiry into the interrogation techniques used by the American administration and military in Guantanamo and beyond, featuring a stellar cast including Vanessa Redgrave, Ralph Fiennes, Jay Sanders, Philippe Sands, Damian Lewis and Gillian Anderson.
The wider world of the cosmos is explored by, among others, Professor Brian Cox who reveals the Wonders of the Universe in a Royal Society lecture chaired by Nobel Laureate Paul Nurse and astronomers Martin Rees, John Barrow and Simon Mitton.
Rolf Heuer, head of the CERN Large Hadron Collider, talks about its first tumultuous decade.
Stars of a different sort – of screens big and small – arrive at Hay in the shape of Hollywood hearthrob Rob Lowe, star of The West Wing and Brothers and Sisters, who’ll be talking to Mariella Frostrup about his memoir, Stories I Only Tell My Friends.
Chris Evans returns with the results of the 500 Words competition, bringing his BBC Radio 2 breakfast show with him and making time for another chat with Anne Robinson about the second volume of his memoirs.
On the closing Sunday of the festival, musician, campaigner and businessman Bob Geldof will be talking to festival director Peter Florence, the sixth in a series of conversations over the last 20 years, in which he’ll be focusing on song-writing, the environment and African trade. He’ll then return to the stage with tracks from his new album, How to Compose Popular Songs That Will Sell, joined by the Hay house band, back from its tour of Hay festivals in Mexico, Colombia and Kerala to bring this year’s event to a close.
For a full programme, booking information and details of extra bus services to the show site from Hereford, Brecon and intermediate villages, visit hayfestival.org.
