Hay Festival 2020 Earlybirds

In this drawing session participants will draw from a clothed model, exploring approaches to drawing the figure as well as clothes and costume. We will explore how dress and posture give character and help breathe life into our drawings. Students are encouraged to draw texture, pattern and weave, making inventive marks using colour. Models are actors and dancers and we refer to literature, poetry and opera.

Suitable for all ages and abilities

This year’s Forum will broadly ask ‘What policies should the new government be pursuing to build a sustainable Britain?’

Full day ticket allows entry to all 6 sessions: events 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7.

Getting to grips with the energy sector, new technologies and moving to a low-carbon supply – Mark Shorrock, Chief Executive of Tidal Lagoon Power, and Patrick Begg, the National Trust’s energy expert discuss with Hay on Earth Director Andy Fryers.

Myth and storytelling open up the imaginative mind. In this drawing session there will be readings from Welsh myths, legends and poetry while participants draw from life, working from a model and props, as well as using imagination and memory.

Suitable for all ages and abilities

Can we keep food affordable while paying more for it to conserve the environment? George Freeman MP, Minister for Life Sciences (including responsibility for the Governments Agri-tech Strategy), discusses with Tim Lang, Professor of Food Policy at City University London.

Can the pioneering Welsh policy One Planet Development be used as a template for governments and planners? Could it bring in a new attitude to development, planning and land management, to take into account the full environmental impact of human activities? Jane Davidson of INSPIRE talks to author and consultant David Thorpe.

Drawing out and about around the festival demands a very different kind of language to that of the life room: nothing is fixed, everything is in flux. By working from observation outdoors and on the move, drawing can be used as a means of recording a personal experience of our surroundings and their character, heightening perceptions of our environment and enlivening our drawing practice.

Suitable for all ages and abilities

Cloudy with a chance of compost – forecasting the circular economy with the New Weather Institute. Author and campaigner Andrew Simms talks to author and journalist David Boyle and Carl Nichols, Head of WRAP Cymru.

Are governments trying to 'get us out of our cars'? Is better public transport the solution to congestion in cities? Does Britain have a shortage of family housing and what has that got to do with transport? This book dispels myths and presents a sustainable vision for the future.  Steve Melia from the University of the West of England talks to the Hay on Earth Director.

Well, er, the clue is in the name... The man was gazing steadily at Griffith Rhys Jones, son of Elwyn and Gwynneth, scion of Megan and Ieuan and Evan, spawn of Betwys-y-Coed, Penmachno and the Rhondda, dark of hair, thick-thighed and round-faced. Griffith Rhys Jones. I was born in Cardiff. My mother was from Ferndale in the Rhondda, my father was from Penylan. Every single one of my relatives...were Welsh. I think I am Welsh. But am I insufficiently Welsh? It’s time to find out. I am going out on the road to search for my Celtic roots and explore the land of my aunties. Language, the landscape, rugby, dogs, legends, botany, wildlife, furniture and a few more bits on the side: I looked into them all and here are the results. Chaired by Justin Albert.

We have been treating the Earth as an object to be exploited, and have consequently cut ourselves off from evolving co-operatively with nature. We have to find new ways of doing, knowing and being so that we can live in harmony with all life. Mick Collins, author and occupational therapist, talks to Andy Middleton.

Talgarth Male Voice Choir are joined by Hay Community Choir and bands and choirs from schools in the Gwernyfed area. They sing a celebration concert of popular choral works to raise money for the school minibus. The concert will be compèred by Chris Davies. Please join us.

Shan Cothi brings her Welsh-language morning programme, Bore Cothi, to the Festival. We promise live music and an easy-going feel, so relax and enjoy!

Broadcast live on BBC Radio Cymru every Monday–Friday, 10am–12pm.

In this portrait class, students will be encouraged to experiment with various drawing mediums, using colour and line to explore different ways of depicting depth and shade. There will be an emphasis on looking in detail at the individual, the peculiarities and structure of the head, discovering what makes a drawing a portrait.

Suitable for all ages and abilities

Expect the unexpected! With a focus on Welsh culture and landscape, this drawing course uses unusual props and models to inspire you, opening up the imaginative mind and enlivening our drawing practice. With particular reference to artists Maggie Hambling, Thomas Bewick and Samuel Palmer.

Suitable for all ages and abilities

Please join us for a feast of great drama as we big-screen the whole of Series 2 of Steven Knight’s gangster drama Peaky Blinders, starring Cillian Murphy, Tom Hardy, Sam Neill and Helen McCrory.

Entrance is free. The famous Richard Booth’s Bookshop Café will be serving refreshments throughout the day.

Thermal experience is deeply embedded in our everyday life. 'Hot', 'cool' and figurative references to other thermal states are commonplace in everyday discourse, underlining the importance of thermal environments to human existence. Thermal experience comes at an increasingly high cost since it usually requires expensive energy resources to create thermal conditions that meet householders’ expectations, in many hard-to-heat existing dwellings. Chris Tweed will talk about the role of thermal conditions in our experience of the built environment and the impact that thermally motivated behaviours have on energy used for heating dwellings in the UK.

Wynne Evans brings his Big Welsh Weekend to the Festival. Expect big name guests, laughs and live music.

Broadcast live on BBC Radio Wales every Friday, 1pm–4pm.