Back in the heady heat of the late 80s, the Hay Festival was created pretty much out of nothing more than ingenuity and a congregation of free spirited thinkers around a kitchen table, according the Hay Festival website. Now it is a massive 10 day event that draws flocks of book lovers from all over the world to the town of Hay-on-Wye in the beautiful setting of the Brecon Beacons National Park.
However, the 2012 Hay Festival is a bit of a special year for the organisers as it marks their silver jubilee of the event. Early bird tickets went on sale in Spring 2012 and information about the full programme of the festival began to trickle out in the build up to the 25 year celebration.
First up were tickets for “comedy rock superstar” Tim Minchin (Larrikins) as the flamboyant Aussie went on to perform the opening night concert and crooned out his own brand of rock n roll lyrics. The other event that had been announced for early bird tickets was Hilary Mantel’s conversation about Bring Up The Bodies, her sequel to the awe-inspiring Booker Prize-winning novel, Wolf Hall.
Tickets to Hilary Mantel’s discussion were £12.50, but sadly tickets for the Minchin megathon have already sold out pretty fast for the show on the 1st of June 2012, although there were more tickets available for the night of Thursday 31st May 2012, but this followed suit as the festival approached.
The Hay Festival 2012 ran between the 31st May to the 10th June 2012 and the sheer weight of the full line-up proved that 25 was one of the best years the festival has had. As well as Minchin and Mantel (which sounds like an old pistol makers), the festival also featured Terry Pratchett discussing his huge body of work along with his struggle with Alzheimer’s disease. Sir Salman Rushdie previewed his memoirs on his years in hiding, while other prize winning writers like Martin Amis (The Pregnant Widow) and Alan Hollinghurst also featured on the line-up.
One of the coolest events that took place in 2012 has got to be the annual science lecture, which was chaired by Ian McEwan (Solar) and delivered this year by James Watson, the 1962 Nobel Laureate, and author of The Double Helix, who in 1953 discovered the structure of DNA with Francis Crick. Watson apparently ran to the nearest pup after the lecture to celebrate how well it went.
