Worldwide educational projects

Hay Fever at Hay Festival in Wales

The Hay Fever programme for young people, children and families includes a wide range of workshops every year, from make-and-bake cooking lessons to computing via guitar effects and creative writing.

The annual Schools Days, run during the two days preceding the festival, make a selection of the best children’s writers and thinkers accessible to school groups, for free.

Hay Festivalito in Colombia

Hay Festivalito (the children's programme at Hay Festival Cartagena de Indias) organises events for children and young people in the disadvantaged districts of Cartagena, in association with the Plan Foundation, RCN (Colombia’s national news channel), the Cartagena Cultural Heritage Institute and Cartagena City Council.

International writers and musicians participating in the festival share their experiences with the children and teenagers in workshops and talks, providing them with the opportunity of sharing interesting and inspiring ideas. All the events are free of charge.

In every district, the work linked to Hay Festivalito is carried out year-round – together with Plan, RCN Radio-Televisión and Cartagena City Council, the Festival has started the project Punto de Partida (Starting Point), to help teachers develop their students’ abilities. Seven educational institutions from areas where Plan works are participating in 2010–2011, reaching more than 2,500 children.

Hay Festival Maldives

At the first Hay Festival Maldives in 2010, the final day of the festival was dedicated to the next generation of artists and thinkers.

Workshops for schools and college students took place, to give Maldivian students direct access to writers and experts speaking at the festival, with the sole aim of encouraging and inspiring participation.

The workshops programme in 2010 included Monty Don gardening with students on Soneva Gili, Mark Lynas brainstorming on climate change, Ian McEwan leading a seminar about his novel Solar and journalists from Haveeru (the Maldives online news resource) helping students to produce articles and reviews.

Brecon Jazz

At Brecon Jazz 2010, a range of music workshops offered teenagers the opportunity to learn from professionals about techniques such as beat-matching, guitar effects and electric drumming. A ‘Getting to know the Music Industry’ workshop also provided a unique chance for young people to hear how it really works, from producers and bands. The Brecon Jazz workshops were run in association with UK Youth.