Hayfever @ Hay Festival
Hay Fever is the Festival’s programme for families and young people. Hay Fever is for anyone who likes stories, whether you're a toddler or a teen. We choose all our author events with the utmost care, searching out authors whose books we know you love, or whose books we hope you are going to love.
2007’s Festival was an incredibly exciting year for our younger audience. We were delighted by the stunning puppets from Little Angel Theatre, guffawed with laughter at James Campbell’s Comedy4Kids, and entranced as we watched Quentin Blake create his familiar characters in front of our eyes.
It was also a great pleasure to see so many new faces, with a suitably surreal Hay debut from Andy Stanton, who went on to win the Red House Children’s Book Award later in the week, and a brilliant football focus event from 'books for boys' new star Dan Freedman.
You can hear Andy Stanton, watch Quentin Blake and catch up with many more events via our archive.
2007 also saw a massive growth of our children’s zone, thanks to the support of The Book People. Not only were we able to provide a free library, but there were free storytelling and puppet making sessions throughout the week.
The daily Rhymetime sessions, provided by BookStart, encouraged even the youngest Festival-goer in their love of words and rhythms.
The library of books provided by The Book People has now been gifted to a number of schools and NHS services across Herefordshire and Powys.
Hay Fever is working on a number of plots and plans for the rest of the year and for Hay Festival 2008. Should you have any authors you’d love to meet, if your school wants to get involved in our outreach work or if you have any other comments we’d love to hear from you.
For further information on Hay Fever or Hay Festival Outreach contact ruth@hayfestival.com