Hay Festival Europa28: What does Europe mean to you?

Tell us in 500 words and you could WIN a one-off trip to Hay Festival Europa28 in Rijeka, Croatia, for you and a friend in October 2020.

Blank page waiting to be written on

Hay Festival Europa28 is a global Hay Festival project exploring the future of Europe and celebrating some of the continent's most inspiring new thinkers. 28 women writers from the 28 European countries have been commissioned to share their visions for the future in essays and lectures that we'll be sharing throughout 2020. Find out more about the project.

As a landmass Europe incorporates some of the world's most inspiring landscapes and treasured ecosystems. As a political body it represents some 513 million people and produces almost a quarter of the world’s wealth. It has been the birthplace of some of the world's most unifying works of art and its most terrifying ideologies. Today it remains on the brink of change.

But what does Europe mean to you? Tell us in 100–500 words and you could WIN a one-off trip to Hay Festival Europa28 in Rijeka, Croatia, for you and a friend in October 2020.

How to enter

In 100–500 words tell us what Europe means to you. You can write it in whichever form you choose – letter, poem, short story, play, song, rap – with submissions accepted in English, Spanish, French and Croatian. Email your submission before 1 February 2020 as an attachment along with your name, age, address and contact phone number to europa28@hayfestival.com.

Your prize

The overall winner will earn a trip for two to Hay Festival Europa28 in Rijeka, Croatia, with festival tickets, accommodation and travel included, and a first edition of the new Hay Festival Europa28 collection. Ten runners up will each receive a copy of the new collection. Winning entries will be displayed over on our International Writer's Blog and published in a special pamphlet to be distributed at future events.

Terms & conditions

  1. Entry is open to EU residents aged 18 or over, excluding employees (and their immediate families) of Hay Festival (the Promoter) or their associated companies, agents and anyone else professionally connected with this promotion.
  2. Only one entry per person. Bulk/third party entries will not be accepted.
  3. To enter the Hay Festival Europa28 promotion you will need to submit 100–500 words on the theme of WHAT DOES EUROPE MEAN TO YOU? by email to europa28@hayfestival.com as specified. The prize winner will be selected at random from the correct entries received and the winner will be contacted using the contact details provided at the time of entry. If a winner cannot be contacted within a reasonable time, a supplementary winner may be drawn at the Promoter’s discretion and notified. The competition will run from 27 May 2019 and run to 1 February 2020.
  4. Any other expenses incurred by the winners in the use or enjoyment of these prizes are the responsibility of the winner.
  5. The prize fund consists of: 1 x trip to Hay Festival Rijeka28 (6–9 October 2020) worth £1,000 for a winner and a guest of their choosing, plus a copy of the Hay Festival Europa28 anthology. This prize includes return travel to Rijeka from a EU regional airport, three nights, bed & breakfast accommodation at a hotel, transfers to and from the Rijeka airport to the hotel. The winner is responsible for their travel arrangements to and from the EU departure airport and travel insurance.
  6. The Promoter will not be responsible for any inability of a winner to take up the specified prize.
  7. The Promoter accepts no responsibility for entries lost, mislaid, damaged, delayed or corrupted in transit.
  8. All prizes are non-transferable and there are no cash alternatives. The Promoter reserves the right to change the prizes for one of a similar value if circumstances make this necessary.
  9. The Promoter’s decision in all matters shall be final and binding and no correspondence will be entered into.
  10. The winner may be asked to take part in promotional activities and it is a condition of entry that you agree to your name, entry and a photo of you being made publicly available if you win, and to sign any releases deemed necessary by the Promoter. 
  11. Prize entries become the property of the Promoter and the Promoter reserves the right to use these entries in future promotional activities.
  12. The Promoter reserves the right to hold, void, cancel or suspend this promotion or to amend these terms and conditions at any time without notice where it is reasonable to do so.
  13. Entrants must comply with these terms and conditions, and will be deemed to have read, understood and accepted them if they participate in the promotion.
  14. Prizes are subject to availability and in the event the prize becomes unavailable, it may be replaced by one of equal or greater value.
  15. Entries not complying with these terms and conditions will be invalid.
Womarts
Co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union