Hay Festival Cartagena 2025

The twentieth edition of Hay Festival Cartagena de Indias will be held from 30 January to 2 February. In this page you can find the events in the general programme as well as Hay Festival Joven activities for university audiences, Hay Festival Comunitario sessions which took place in different areas of Cartagena, Reading Clubs and Talento Editorial.

For any inquirie, please contact tickets@hayfestival.org and contacto@hayfestival.org

Event HFC1

Catalina Gómez Ángel

Workshop for community reporters

 El Pozón
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To open the Hay Festival Comunitario programme, the journalist Catalina Gómez Ángel offers her traditional workshop for reporters. For over ten years, the Hay Festival Cartagena has been running this community journalism project in which, guided by a professional, participants learn to find new ways of putting their surroundings into words.

Free event
Catalina Gómez Ángel

Event HFC2

Pabla Flores and Elizabeth Martínez in conversation

Inaugural Hay Festival Comunitario event

 Institución Educativa 14 de Febrero - El Pozón
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The film La Suprema premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2023. It has since participated in more than 25 festivals and has been selected as a candidate for nomination to both the Academy Awards and the Goya Awards. In a town erased from maps, where there is no electricity, a teenager dreams of becoming a boxer. When she learns that her uncle will compete in the world championship and the event will be broadcast live on television, she and her community face the impossible to watch the fight while striving against oblivion. In this session, we will speak with Elizabeth Martínez and Pabla Flores, the actresses starring in the film, about the process behind its production. Followed by a musical performance by Pabla Flores with the accompaniment of drummer Gregorio Pedroza.
Evento gratuito para la comunidad de El Pozón
Pabla Flores and Elizabeth Martínez in conversation

Event HFC3

Carolina Garzón Blanco and Mary Grueso

 La Canoa Literaria
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Mary Grueso is a poet, oral storyteller, writer, activist, teacher and one of the most prominent voices of the Colombian Pacific. Agüela, se fue la nuna is a book about a child who wants to understand what has happened to the moon; his wise agüela offers to help, and together they go on an adventure in which they discover not only the secrets of our moon, but also about Tumaco, its games, everyday life, and knowledge. She will share this story with Carolina Garzón Blanco, the book’s illustrator.
Free event
Carolina Garzón Blanco and Mary Grueso

Event HFJ1

Workshop with Tatiana Velásquez

Independent journalism today

 Universidad Tecnológica de Bolívar (sede Manga)
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Tatiana Velásquez (Colombia), co-founder and reporter for La Contratopedia Caribe. Social communicator and journalist, graduate of the Autonomous University of the Caribbean (in Barranquilla) with a Master’s in Investigative Journalism, Data and Visualisation from the Rey Juan Carlos University in Spain, with a Google fellowship. She has worked at the Colombian media organisations El Heraldo, El Tiempo and La Silla Vacía, and has published articles in El Espectador, Spain’s El Confidencial, Vice Latinoamérica and ColombiaCheck. At this event, she will give a journalism workshop.

Event free for the university community
Workshop with Tatiana Velásquez

Event 1

Carlos Vives in conversation with Andrés Mompotes

Inaugural El Tiempo event

 Teatro Adolfo Mejía
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Carlos Vives is a living legend. Named Person of the Year in 2024 by the Latin Recording Academy, Vives is one of the most prolific recording artists and most loved musicians in the Spanish-speaking world. He has been in music for over three decades, winning two Grammys and 18 Latin Grammys. He has worked with artists of all kinds, from Rubén Blades to Shakira, and he has become an ambassador of Colombian culture to the world. He will talk to Andrés Mompotes about his extensive musical career.

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Carlos Vives in conversation with Andrés Mompotes

Event HFC4

Screening of the film La Suprema

 Colegio Politécnico El Pozón
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In a town that appears on no maps, where there is no electricity, a teenager dreams of being a boxer. When she learns that her uncle will box for the world title, and the event will be shown live on television, she and the community are ready to overcome any obstacle to see the fight, while they struggle against being forgotten. Directed by Felipe Holguín.

Duration: 83 min.

Free event
Screening of the film La Suprema

Event HFC5

Elizabeth Martínez, Tere Gaviria y Felipe Holguín in conversation with Katleen Marun

The making of La Suprema

 Colegio Politécnico El Pozón
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At this event we will talk about the film with its director, Felipe; its producer, Tere; and the actor who plays the leading role, Elizabeth. How did the idea come about? How was the process of making the film? What were the main challenges faced? In conversation with Katleen Marun, Elizabeth Martínez, Tere Gaviria and Felipe Holguín tell us about the experience of making La Suprema, behind the cameras.
Evento gratuito para la comunidad de El Pozón
Elizabeth Martínez, Tere Gaviria y Felipe Holguín in conversation with Katleen Marun

Event HFC6

Performance-based reading from the Semilla collection

 Nelson Mandela
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Since 2014, the university press of the Technological University of Bolivar (UTB) has been creating a book collection called Semilla, whose goal is to cultivate a love of reading and literature among young people and adults in the UTB community. For the collection, the press has carefully selected major works from different genres and authors of world literature. At this event, Graciela Franco and Federico Ochoa, lecturers in Humanities, and Julián Navarro, Deacon of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, will present a performance involving a reading of The Diaries of Adam and Eve by Mark Twain, with musical accompaniment.
Free event
Performance-based reading from the Semilla collection

Event HFC7

Carlos Agudelo Montoya

 Puerto Rey
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Carlos Agudelo Montoya (Colombia) teaches, runs literature workshops and also writes. He has won a range of awards and has published many books for children, including Colombia es una fiesta and El piano de la selva. In his book Tras la sonrisa del lobo we read the stories of classic characters including Tom Thumb, Bluebeard, Cinderella, the evil witches, and Red Riding Hood’s wolf who, when he is not working as the villain of the story, is really a friend of Grandma and the hunter. He also talks about books and literature on his YouTube channel, Más que literatura.
Free event
Carlos Agudelo Montoya

Event 3

Mario Ellington, Mónica Moreno Figueroa, Claudia Mosquera Rosero-Labbé, Federico Pita and Roberto Zurbano in conversation with Yoseth Ariza

Patterns of racism

 Centro de Convenciones (Salón Barahona)
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If we wish to create most just societies, with an equality of opportunities and rights, it is important to analyse the structural racism that exists around us. We talk to five experts from five countries in the region about how to counter racism through education and change: with Mario Ellington (Guatemala), a Garifuna lawyer and former Vice-minister of Culture in Guatemala; Mónica Moreno Figueroa (Mexico), Professor of Sociology at the University of Cambridge; Claudia Mosquera Rosero-Labbé (Colombia), academic and Colombian Ambassador in Senegal; Federico Pita (Argentina), activist and intellectual; and Roberto Zurbano (Cuba), a cultural critic and essayist; in conversation with Yoseth Ariza Araújo, Director of the Centre for Afrodiaspora Studies at the ICESI University.

Price: $40,000.00 (COP)
Mario Ellington, Mónica Moreno Figueroa, Claudia Mosquera Rosero-Labbé, Federico Pita and Roberto Zurbano in conversation with Yoseth Ariza

Event 4

Conference by Diana Uribe

Women throughout history

 Centro de Convenciones (Auditorio Getsemaní)
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Diana Uribe is one of the most outstanding communicators of the past of Colombia, telling its stories through books, on the radio and now via a podcast, in a career that has spanned twenty years. She has won various accolades, including a Simón Bolívar National Journalism Award. In her new book Mujeres a través de la historia, Uribe looks at and commemorates women’s journey from ancient times to our own days.
Price: $40,000.00 (COP)
Conference by Diana Uribe

Event 5

Txell Feixas, Catalina Gómez Ángel, Abraham Jiménez Enoa and Tatiana Velásquez in conversation with Juan Diego Quesada

War, dictatorship and corruption: attacks on journalism

 Palacio de la Proclamación (Auditorio Juan José Nieto)
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Journalism is one of the most powerful tools invented by democratic societies to keep power in check. When we are dealing with scenarios of violence and corruption, how can journalism continue? Juan Diego Quesada will talk to Txell Feixas (Spain), a journalist and writer who has been a correspondent in Lebanon; Catalina Gómez Ángel (Colombia), who specialises in the Middle East and the Ukraine; Abraham Jiménez Enoa (Cuba), journalist and winner of the Michael Jacobs Travel Writing Grant 2023 with Aterrizar en el mundo; and Tatiana Velásquez (Colombia), founder of La Contratopedia Caribe, an outlet that investigates contracting and the management of public money in Bolívar and Atlántico.
Price: $40,000.00 (COP)
Txell Feixas, Catalina Gómez Ángel, Abraham Jiménez Enoa and Tatiana Velásquez in conversation with Juan Diego Quesada

Event HFJ2

Jesús Herrera Babilonia and Lilia Herrera in conversation with Vincent Taborda

Stories from the island. Cultural management with a community perspective

 Universidad de Cartagena, Claustro de San Agustín (Biblioteca)
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The Entrelazarnos: Märchenstunde Mis Cuentos de la Isla project is an initiative led by the Casa Cultural Colombo Alemana in the four towns of the island of Tierra Bomba. This project generated creative experiences with women community leaders, children and young people. At this event, Jesús Herrera Babilonia (Colombia), an educationalist, historian, psychologist and cultural manager at the Casa Cultural Colombo Alemana, and Lilia Herrera (Colombia), comunnity leader of Tierra Bomba will talk to Vincent Taborda about the experiences of those involved in the process of creating stories with an island theme.
Event free for the university community
Jesús Herrera Babilonia and Lilia Herrera in conversation with Vincent Taborda

Event HFJ3

José Carlos Cueto and Norberto Paredes

BBC Mundo journalism workshop

 Universidad Tecnológica de Bolívar (sede Manga)
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Two journalists from one of the world’s most important and prestigious media organisations, José Carlos Cueto and Norberto Paredes, will give a journalism workshop aimed at university students. These two members of the BBC Mundo team will explain the working model of the Spanish-language section of this British news service, which is over a hundred years old and is renowned for its news rigour and quality, focussing particularly on audio-visual content creation and managing the social media.
Event free for the university community
José Carlos Cueto and Norberto Paredes

Event 5B

El Colegio del Cuerpo (eCdC) presents Dos Volcanes y un Laberinto

 Casa 1537
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A choreographic installation by Álvaro Restrepo for Compañía Cuerpo de Indias (eCdC). A homage to writers Álvaro Mutis and Gabriel García Márquez, based in the short story El último Rostro by Mutis and the novel El General en su Laberinto by Gabo. An scenic meditation about the loneliness of power, treason, ingratitude, the body ravaged by illness and the deadly disenchatment of the Libertador regarding his failed dream about the great Latin American nation.
Free access until full capacity
El Colegio del Cuerpo (eCdC) presents Dos Volcanes y un Laberinto

Event 6

Marcus du Sautoy in conversation with Rodrigo Quian Quiroga

The art of the shortcut and abstraction

 Centro de Convenciones (Auditorio Getsemaní)
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The professor Marcus du Sautoy (United Kingdom) is renowned for his work as a mathematics communicator. In his latest publication, Thinking Better, he reflects on shortcuts and their reputation as ways of cheating; but for Sautoy, they are legitimate tactics of the creative process. The author explains how this is reflected in mathematics, in ‘the art of the shortcut’. Together with Rodrigo Quian Quiroga (Argentina), he will talk about the brain’s capacity to code abstract ideas as well as the work done by Quian Quiroga on the “Grandmother cell”. A session that reflects on the relationship between science and art, and the representation of science in film, as dealt with by Quian Quiroga in his book NeuroScienceFiction.

Simultaneous interpretation from English to Spanish available

Price: $40,000.00 (COP)
Marcus du Sautoy in conversation with Rodrigo Quian Quiroga

Event 7

Jaime Abello Banfi, Cristina Fuentes La Roche, Catalina Gómez Ángel, Daniel Mordzinski and Daniel Samper Pizano in conversation with Felipe Restrepo Pombo

Color Cartagena. The Hay Festival through the lens of Daniel Mordzinski

 Centro de Convenciones (Salón Barahona)
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This book celebrates two decades of the Hay Festival Cartagena, Colombia’s great event dedicated to the book and culture. Daniel Mordzinski (Argentina), known as the “writer’s photographer”, offers a playful and unusual view of literature; it gives us his viewpoint together with texts that offer a panorama given by a photographer who has been immersed in the book world for almost half a century. A brief anecdote and a few thoughts accompany each photo, and together with what the images show us, we are party to what goes on outside the frame. Color Cartagena, the official book of twenty years of the Hay Festival, offers the reader a unique experience: the chance to glimpse the visual and emotional kaleidoscope of an exceptional witness to the literature of our time. With Cristina Fuentes La Roche (Spain), Catalina Gómez Ángel (Colombia), Daniel Samper Pizano (Colombia) and Jaime Abello Banfi (Colombia) in conversation with Felipe Restrepo Pombo.
Price: $40,000.00 (COP)
Jaime Abello Banfi, Cristina Fuentes La Roche, Catalina Gómez Ángel, Daniel Mordzinski and Daniel Samper Pizano in conversation with Felipe Restrepo Pombo

Event 8

John Sellars in conversation with Pablo Montoya

Understanding Aristotle

 Teatro Adolfo Mejía
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John Sellars (United Kingdom) is a lecturer in Philosophy at Royal Holloway and is a founding member of the Modern Stoicism organisation. He is the author of the acclaimed Lessons in Stoicism and Epicurus and the Art of Happiness. His most recent book, Aristotle: Understanding the World’s Greatest Philosopher, offers ways to understand the thought of one of the most influential individuals in the history of the West. Sellars shows how his philosophy has been and continues to be important, and how his ideas can be a part of a path towards a fuller life. In conversation with Pablo Montoya.

Simultaneous interpretation from English to Spanish available

Price: $40,000.00 (COP)
John Sellars in conversation with Pablo Montoya

Event 9

Daniel Coronell, María Jimena Duzán and María Elvira Samper in conversation with Juan David Correa

Homage to Guillermo Cano

 Centro de Formación de la Cooperación Española (patio)
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A conversation about Guillermo Cano, a figure to whom we are in debt for his determined journalistic ethic and commitment to the freedom of expression, and whose murder we continue to remember as one of the greatest losses in the history of our country. Almost a century after his birth, we celebrate the life and legacy of the journalist, writer and editor of El Espectador newspaper. With María Jimena Duzán (Colombia), journalist, political commentator and writer; Daniel Coronell (Colombia), director of Los Danieles and Head of News at Univisión; and María Elvira Samper (Colombia), an award-winning writer and journalist who has been at the helm of a number of Colombian news organisations. In conversation with Juan David Correa.

Price: $40,000.00 (COP)
Daniel Coronell, María Jimena Duzán and María Elvira Samper in conversation with Juan David Correa

Event 10

Jennifer Ackerman, Wieldler Guerra, Rogelio Mejía, María Negroni in conversation with Javier Cajiao

​​20 questions: science and nature

 Palacio de la Proclamación (Auditorio Juan José Nieto)
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In 2025, the Hay Festival celebrates 20 years of conversations and thought in Colombia. To mark the anniversary, we have run a collaborative project in which Colombian society has helped us to put the twenty key questions for our time. This panel invites us to reflect on the vital nature of the sciences, nature and the future of research based on the questions: How can we guarantee the rights of animals and plants? Can science meet the demand for meat and fish with protein created in a laboratory? How can science tackle the problems of mental health and prolong our life expectancy? How can extensive farming by made compatible with protecting biodiversity in Colombia? With Jennifer Ackerman (United States), Wieldler Guerra (Colombia), Rogelio Mejía (Colombia), María Negroni (Argentina) and Javier Cajiao (Colombia).

Simultaneous interpretation from English to Spanish available

Price: $40,000.00 (COP)
Jennifer Ackerman, Wieldler Guerra, Rogelio Mejía, María Negroni in conversation with Javier Cajiao

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