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| Hay Festival of Literature & Arts | |
|---|---|
 Hay Festival crowds reading between sessions | |
| Genre | Literature |
| Frequency | Annually |
| Location(s) | Hay-on-Wye, Powys, Wales |
| Founded | 1988 |
| Founder | Norman, Rhoda and Peter Florence |
| Website | www |
The Hay Festival of Literature & Arts, better known as the Hay Festival (Welsh: Gŵyl Y Gelli), is an annual literature festival held in Hay-on-Wye, Powys, Wales, for 10 days from May to June. Devised by Norman, Rhoda and Peter Florence in 1988, the festival was described by Bill Clinton in 2001 as "The Woodstock of the mind".[1] Tony Benn said: "In my mind it's replaced Christmas".[2]
It has become a prominent festival in British culture, and sessions at the festival have been recorded for television and radio programmes such as The Readers' and Writers' Roadshow and The One Show. All the BBC's national radio channels apart from BBC Radio 1 have been involved in broadcasting from the festival, and Sky Arts showed highlights of the festival from 2010 until 2013, handing over the main coverage to the BBC for the 2014 event.[3]
- ^ Hide, Will (20 January 2007). "The world this week: find 'the Woodstock of the mind'". The Times. London. Retrieved 26 January 2007.[dead link]
- ^ "20 facts about Hay-on-Wye and its famous festival". BBC News. 27 May 2011. Retrieved 7 April 2016.
- ^ "BBC to broadcast Hay Festival on radio, TV, and online". 1 May 2014. Retrieved 7 April 2016.