WELSH minister for housing, regeneration and heritage, Huw Lewis, joined the throng at Hay-on-Wye’s newest festival offering, How The Light Gets In.

The Merthyr politican joined the likes of Vince Cable, author Philip Pullman and poet Simon Armitage in signing up for the philosophy-based event, which runs concurrently with the Hay Festival at the Globe on Newport Street.

Critic Bonnie Greer, Hollywood writer Jez Butterworth, and the Shadowlands screenwriter Will-iam Nicholson were also booked to appear at the 10-day outing, which has tripled in size in the last few years and now offers 359 events to 20,000 visitors a year. The Globe’s parent company, The Institute of Arts and Ideas, describes it as an “unashamedly high-brow programme tackling the latest theories in everything from philosophy and art to science and politics”.

Festival director Hilary Lawson said “the talk, play and dance bring life to a world of ideas”.