Christopher BarrettIndependently run, 11-day, literature and arts event the Hay Festival saw footfall rise 37% compared to the 2022 edition, with ticket sales up 17%.
The programme for 2023 edition, involved more than 500 in-person events taking place at the Hay-on-Wye site between 25 May and 4 June. GL Events created a vast area of temporary infrastructure (pictured) to accommodate appearances across eight stages by talent including music acts Stormzy, Dua Lipa and The Proclaimers, actor Helen Bonham Carter, politicians such as Sadiq Khan, mountaineer Ranulph Fiennes, and dozens of novelists including Margaret Atwood, Kate Mosse and Douglas Stuart.
Hay Festival CEO Julie Finch said, “This year’s Hay Festival offered a programme of bold thinking and new ideas to carry us forward with optimism and hope. Festivalgoers turned out in their thousands to celebrate culture and engage in new thinking, a sign that audiences are hungry for inspiration and to participate with authors and their books, in discussions and debates and in creative experiences.”