Our monthly 'Meet the Haymaker' series shares stories of the change-makers at the heart of Hay Festival and the impact it has had on their lives. This month, get to know Bradley Taylor, participant in The Platform at Hay Festival 2024 and winner of the Roundhouse Poetry Slam.
What does Hay Festival Global mean to you?
Safety. Conversation. Safety through conversation and safety because of conversation. Quiet. Celebration. A celebration of the quiet through a quiet celebration. We come here to be quiet and listen. We come here to celebrate conversation, and have conversations we wish we could have every day. We celebrate the peace and quiet of books. The safety of books. The conversations had through books. Books. Books. Books. And voices. The voices that are the reason these books exist. The voices that are the reason that we come to Hay Festival. Yes. Voices. Amplified.
What’s your favourite Festival memory?
When I was a part of The Platform in 2024. I have such vivid recollections of this day – of seeing my fellow performers and artists wandering about the festival site, doing their thing, whilst I was also on my way to do my thing; Poetry on Demand with my typewriter. We were like a travelling circus. And we all had each other’s backs, we were all encouraging each other from the moment we arrived and we were all also pinching ourselves constantly, not quite believing we were a part of the festival. It was lovely and I wish I could re-live it. It’s such an important programme for something like the Hay Festival to put on for emerging artists. I also got to write around 100 poems for strangers that day and, of course, Hay Festival attendees had the most interesting prompts for poems. One other memory – from this year’s Festival: finally meeting John Cooper Clarke in the green room and getting to apologise to him for constantly being introduced as the ‘Brummie John Cooper Clarke’. He forgave me. I think.
Have you ever changed your mind on something having been to a Hay Festival event?
One thing I make sure to do every time I come to Hay is to choose an event in the programme I know nothing about but sounds potentially interesting, and just book it. Last year I did this for a talk with A. C. Grayling, who was there to talk about the colonisation of the moon. It was fascinating. He is such an eloquent speaker – I like someone who talks to you as if in conversation, mixing in some humour and personality whilst covering the big topics. And perhaps it was less that my mind was changed – but instead my mind became very suddenly aware of this arms race to start building on the moon. It’s the stuff of sci-fi. But A. C. Grayling translated that to reality. Fascinating stuff, even if I am now terrified to look up to the night sky sometime soon and see a Premier Inn sign sticking out of a moons crater.
Who was the best speaker or performer you saw on a Hay Festival stage?
Jeanette Winterson, Hay Festival 2024. I think about it all the time. Who better to deliver an hour of ghost stories and paranormal paranoia than Jeanette Winterson? I remember I came with my friends from The Heath Bookshop here in Birmingham - and we did the classic Hay Festival run-don’t-run to grab some seats near the front, which we did. And then Jeanette Winterson walks on in a long dark overcoat and starts telling us about the ghosts of her life. And there’s a storm brewing outside, and the tent is flailing in the wind, and there’s patters of rain against the tent, and it was all such a dream. She is one of our greatest storytellers. I remember that event actually informed my work as a performer – I have a page in my notebook listing all the different moves and techniques she used on stage, which I wrote during the event. Hand gestures, clenched fists, big pauses, different voices – a true storyteller. I felt lucky to witness the whole thing.
What advice do you have for a first-timer at the Festival?
Leave yourself time to visit the town and get lost in all the bookshops. Pop into the Three Tuns with your book haul to decompress. Book onto an event at the festival you know nothing about but fancy the look of. Get lost in the conversation. Walk along the river and find the waterfall, just near the church, and then keep going… get lost. Get lost time and time again. In a book, at an event, by the riverside, in conversation - just get lost. This is the perfect place to do it. You’re in safe hands. Get lost!
Sum up Hay Festival Global in five words or less…
Finally, I come back home.
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Bradley Taylor takes part in Hay Festival After Hours: Birmingham on Thursday 24 July 2025. Book tickets here.