Hay Festival in Hay-on-Wye

For the first time America and Europe are looking to Britain’s emerging talent with respect and wonder. We are enjoying a new golden age of British Jazz. The bands featured this year, from the Portico Quartet and Kairos 4tet to Get The Blessing, Matthew Halsall, Brass Jaw, Gwilym Simcock and Kit Downes, hold their own in fantastic company with the galaxy of Scandinavian, French and American stars appearing here this year, set in the world’s most beautiful National Park. Please join us. Full programme available now.

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Thank you for making Hay. It was a blast. We’re prepping now for Oxfam Bookfest and our new Mexican adventure Hay Festival Zacatecas next month, and listening to some thrilling cuts and grooves for Brecon Jazz, which runs 6–8 August. Please join us if you can.

View Brecon Jazz 2010 programme

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In-depth coverage at guardian.co.uk/hay

For the fifth year running, across four days (28–31 January 2010), Hay Festival Cartagena de Indias filled the Caribbean city with literature, discussion, culture, debate and celebration.

The festival is well-known for its multiculturalism and social commitment.

Some photos from the 2010 festival...

Dates for Hay Festival Cartagena 2011 are 27–30 January.

Beirut39 inspires a fresh look at modern Arab literature. A collaboration between the Hay Festival and Beirut World Capital of the Book 2009, the project brings together 39 of the best known and loved writers of Arab heritage under 39 years of age. Discover new voices in Arab literature...

The full programme of events for Beirut39 is now available.

During the Hay Festival in Wales this year, The Black Box in Belfast hosted the best of Hay, flavoured with some local spirit. Events included Simon Singh, Yann Martel and Hugh Ambrose.

More info...

‘Hay hoovers up the best writers published in the world. This has over the years, created a self-reinforcing phenomenon: they get the best, and so the best want to come.’ The Guardian

The first Hay Festival in Zacatecas, Mexico, takes place in July 2010. A new and exciting festival in the heart of Mexico, exploring the best international literature and music, with debate on migration, environment, gender and much more.

Presentamos la primera edición del Hay Festival Zacatecas – la ciudad mexicana se convertirá en un espacio para el diálogo, la conversación y el disfrute, con lo mejor de la literatura internacional, música, artes visuales y mucho más.

View the programme / Ver el programa
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Explore big ideas, set off on great adventures of the imagination, and every evening dance and swing to the world’s greatest musicians and entertainers.

‘The most provocative festival in Spain’ El Mundo

Dates for the fifth Hay Festival Segovia are 23–26 September 2010.

Storymoja Hay Festival Nairobi is a three-day celebration that will provide opportunities for the meeting of minds and sharing of ideas between storytellers and the public. The Festival will act as a platform for readers, writers, listeners and thinkers and provide exposure to some of the world’s leading names in literature as well as some up-and-coming authors.

Read more here...

One of the world’s most hopeful new democracies is threatened by rising tides caused by global warming.

Hay Festival Maldives seeks to understand the climatic change affecting the area, to explore the issues of this and other imperilled cultures, to celebrate the riches of the archipelago civilization and to investigate what is special and unique about island life and mindset.

Further information on Hay Festival Maldives...

Hay Festival journeys to Kerala, India, at the end of 2010.

The three-day programme of events will include authors and speakers from India and across the world, gathering among the tranquil waterways and lush hill stations of this tropical southern state.