The Hay Festival 2007: a big round up! Part 1

In 2007 The Hay Festival was in its 20th year.  Launched in the Welsh borders town of Hay on Wye at the end of May, it has now extended its tentacles to include festival off-shoots in Segovia, Spain and Cartagena, Columbia, as well as mini-festival in Hay on Wye at the beginning of December (something I hope will be pursued annually, after last December's visit).

So, twenty years in, it's no surprise that a little navel-gazing might take place and that the "bad" or "ugly", depending on your point of view, all started off with this piece in The Independent, as far as I can see.  Some authors won't return; they think the festival has lost its soul and original intention.  It's now a celebrity fest and given that Clinton was paid £100k (so rumoured), a case of claret for the real literary stalwarts seems like a kick in the groin.  Ouch!

Now for some other reasoned thoughts:

In the blogosphere, artsWOM, ("the latest in word of mouth conversation on the arts - sponsored by Sky Arts", with Sky being one of the festival's main sponsors in 2007), invited some literary bloggers to attend and blog about their experience thereafter. 

Debi Alper, (read the post entitled "The Hay Blog"), was a Hay Festival virgin, so her comments are based on the objective newbie experience.  Debi arrived before the thing really kicked off, truth be told, but she noted the distance between the now growing festival and the town itself, amongst many other things and she still enjoyed it.

Debi invited Fiction Bitch to accompany her and Fiction Bitch has been there before and can see the difference.  Susan Hill empathised with FB's comments and made her own views known here.  (There is indeed some magical flush of moment, when an adult has to use a loo designed for a 5 year old, knees creaking, no doubt, as it's so close to the floor.  For Susan, it's no longer the Hay Festival without that experience, as well as the pure intimacy of being "in town"...)  FB was also objective and considered the festival over time, even if some of the commenters to her post homed in on the negative.

Then, John Baker took up the reigns - again, an artsWOM blogger invitee and festival virgin.  We get what we might have come to expect from John and his blog - an eclectic mix: he opened with accommodation problems and the curious situation of agreeing to share a room with a couple that might come to be known as "aristofrats"; he enjoyed the festival and the company of others, all of whom he found friendly and willing to chat on the site; he also, objectively, reported on the events he attended with cutting intellect (when he wasn't snoozing throughout - it seems that Mortimer, Lette and Freeman are Mogadon to the man, or was it lack of sleep from the arrival of the aristofrats in the early hours?).

Mixed reviews to date; the negative essentially from those who chose not to visit this year.  So what of the positives of the Hay Festival in its 20th year?

If you missed it and want to catch up, the Hay site is now very upbeat with mp3 downloads of events via this page on its site, being the "virtual festival, online", although events from the final day are a bit sparse.  Started in 2005, the recordings are thick and fast this year.  You can hear the whole event, needing to register first and buy some "credits".  From what I've experienced, an hour long event draws on one credit, which is the equivalent to £1.  So far, the highlights in my mind, include the following (crime related in the main):

• Alexander McCall Smith in conversation with Paul Blezard.  This is hugely entertaining and a great laugh.  Not so much a conversation, but more of a monologue from McCall Smith with the author chuckling in a noticeable and memorably high pitched way, to himself and along with his audience.  McCall Smith knows his audience like no other and defines the word "approachable".  Blezard's role was almost entirely redundant, such is McCall Smith's ability to "tune in" with his audience, and perhaps, just be himself, openly and honestly, which is what readers love.  Many laughs in there.  But tune in, at least to find out McCall Smith's reaction to an audience question that started along these lines (not a direct quote): "You're not as I expected you to look.  You're not as young and good looking as I'd expected."  How did the ever so jolly Sandy react to that one?

• Ruth Rendell talking to Stephanie Merritt of the Guardian, about her work and forthcoming novel.  More on that one in a later post.

• Classic Book Club: White Man in Africa - this has Peter Stothard from the TLS, author and writer Peter Godwin, along with Tinashe Mushakavanhu, a young Zimbawean writer and poet who now lives in Wales, studying at Trinity College, Carmarthen.  The books discussed were Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" and Evelyn Waugh's "Scoop".  A big Welsh welcome to Tinashe, who, as this year's African Literature Programme Co-ordinator and festival newbie has recorded his experiences in a blog.   He also enjoyed Shepherds Ice Cream, over more than one day, love him!  But back to the event - well worth listening to, if only for the audience question that sought to explore the Freudian element in the novels.  It was a very, very detailed question, almost academic.  So how did the panel cope with that one?

• Ian Rankin marks the 20th anniversary of Rebus also, in conversation with Marcel Berlins.  20/20 vision perhaps?

• Peter Falk (Columbo to all) speaks to Paul Blezard in this interview.  Falk is now approaching 80 years of age and it's a staggering feat to make it to Hay, for someone of that age.  Columbo's mind always seemed to wander and Falk does not rest the enduring and well loved character's soul here.  Falk is also an artist with much talent, on top of the acting talent of which his public is so aware.    The heard only, (not seen, due to online listening), on-stage exhibits have to be loved, click that link to "hear" more.  Blezard compared one of Falk's works to Dégas.  This was a big event for Hay.  Falk meanders big time, but what could we expect?   Falk is pushing 80 after all.  Blezard tries, when absolutely necessary, to pull the interview back, but fails on more than one occasion - not that it mattered as that became the theme of the interview, with all wondering what Falk might pick on next.  Falk being Columbo and in character, playing to the audience, or Falk being Falk, and of that certain age.  Who knows?  (If you buy this mp3, turn the speaker volume onto "high" or "max" for best effect; Falk does not seem to have the hang of the microphone and is sometimes very quietly spoken, to a whisper, whereas Blezard can bellow with at least 1,00o watts, especially for the latter part of the intro, where you might choose to turn the volume down.)  Beware, this recording has music to start and some silence thereafter before the interview finally kicks in.  Maximum volume is best, turning down when necessary, waiting for the speech to commence.

As for the other Hay 2007 experiences, A A Gill, in my eyes, became man of the moment this year.  Having called the Welsh "stunted, bigoted, dark, ugly, pugnacious little trolls" some years ago, the man visits Hay at some personal risk.  But "manners maketh man" and Gill can lead the way in this contemporary world, where any previous idea of "manners" is long gone and I commend him for this.  He entered the tent for one event, with cohorts, and was heard to say to them, as they approached a couple of rows of vacant seats at the front, "No, no, I'm not a sponsor.  I'm not a sponsor."  The seats were labelled up for sponsors only and Gill made his way to a normal seat, with no hesitation.

But, where - "manners maketh man" - women with wispy white hair just don't get it, it seems.  The greatest queue cheaters in Hay are those wispy white haired, aged, middle class and upper middle-class ladies.  They think they can get away with it.  They even think they can let someone else into the queue, after they've cheated, saying "What does it matter?"  within their self-satisfied patter.  It means at least about 40 people will hate you, dear ladies!  Of course, the big give away is the fact that they can tell the interlopers they invite to join them just how the painted white lines work when it comes to queuing...

Coming up in future posts, over the next week or so, with pics:

• A review of the last day at Hay.
• Some highlights from the Ruth Rendell event.
• Detail of the Neil Pearson and Rick Gekoski event on serious book collecting - a dry topic given a living, beating heart by these guys.  If Pearson's opening joke that those attending had failed to get tickets for Martin Amis was correct (which I doubt) - they won't have been disappointed.  Indeed, I think they'd have been thrilled and inspired.
• A little bit of the Keith Allen event - yes, that's Lily's dad to those of the younger persuasion.

Comments

[Blezard]

As the 'Blezard' mentioned in the blog I'd just like, if I may, to congratulate you on a darn fine blog. You manage to convey a keen sense of the atmosphere in the many events that you cover and confirm for me what I've long suspected, that Hay audiences are so very engaged and involved in the events that they come to see. On a personal note thank you also, as the 'feeling' of the audience - which stage lighting often prevents those on stage from actually seeing - makes an enormous difference to the path that events take. it's also so nice to read accounts of what happened as chairing some of the events can be such an all consuming engagement with the author/actor/performer that I often have no idea what happened between getting on the stage and getting of. Bless you... see you next year!

[Clare]

Fascinating post, CFR -really brings it alive for those of us who couldn't be there.

[crimeficreader]

Thanks for your kind comments, all!

Norm, click on the Falk website link, if you haven't already, to see Falk's art work.

[Maxine]

What a wonderful round-up, Crime Fic. I have been somewhat swamped by all the Hay reports, but your focused summary, full of your usual charm, is excellent.

Looking forward to more. I don't usually like photos on blogs as they mess up my rss reader, but I hope you got one of Neil. I'll make an exception for him!

[Norm]

Thanks for this post Rhian. I was reminded that Columbo was my father's favorite TV series, and it is no surprise to discover that such a talented actor as Peter Falk is also an excellent artist.

[Debi]

Thanks for the link. It's been great to see the vast range of reporting on Hay from the blogosphere. As usual your posts are a very welcome addition.