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Available in advance or on the door (subject to availability).
We can only accept credit card bookings via www.ticketweb.co.uk follow this link to purchase tickets for more than one event. After placing tickets in your shopping cart please use your back button to return to the list as pressing continue will take you out into the general area of ticketweb and away from Hay Fringe events. If you only wish to purchase tickets for one event then simply click on Buy Now at the end of its description below. N.B. There is a surcharge per ticket for online credit card sales.
Cash & Cheques are accepted at the box office which is open daily from 10am - 6pm. Contact T:05601 123271, E: info@hayfringe.co.uk You can call in and purchase tickets in person at The Poetry Bookshop, Brook Street, Hay-on-Wye. HR3 5BQ or send cheques made payable to Hay Fringe Ltd. to this address with your order
Tickets for free events can be reserved by emailing the box office. Please put RE Free Event Tickets in the subject heading and if you would like these tickets put with an order already placed online please quote your ticketweb order reference and we will put them together in one envelope for your collection.
Ticket collection - tickets can be picked up from The Poetry Bookshop, in Brook Street, Hay between 10am and 6pm or on the door of the first event booked.
Key to Venues
PH = Parish Hall BL= The Legion SAL=Salem ChapelGLB = The Globe Gallery SWN = The Swan At HayLIB = Hay Library PB = The Poetry Bookshop
Friday 25th May
F1 Arabian Nights Dance Workshop 7pm PH £5.00
Get in the mood with Nancy Warren's gentle introduction to this exotic & joyful dance - beginners welcome. N.B. Anyone with existing medical problems should seek advice from their GP prior to attending this event. BuyNow.
F2 Hafla - Party & Buffet 8pm PH £5.00
Featuring dance performances from Safira and the Veiled Sapphires with their tempting taste of Turkish Delight, Nancy & Emraa Khateera who display the darker Arabian Nights while Siluria gives us her light and humorous take on the dance as well as the best in Middle Eastern beats from BBC radio's Andy Roberts so get shaking those hips; its a party! Buffet By Chef on The Run served from 8pm Buy Now
F3 To Hell With Festivals on a Friday 8.30pm BL £5.00
To Hell with Publishing presents an evening of music and literature featuring new and established names: Daljit Nagra, whose poetry collection, Look We Have Coming to Dover, has been the most spectacular success story of the publishing season. Richard Milward, whose debut novel Apples has been described in TheTimes as ‘Catcher in the Rye meets The Arctic Monkeys'. Michael Smith, ‘The Hunter S Thompson of Hartlepool’ returns to the venue he made his own in 2006. DBC Pierre, author of Vernon God Little and Ludmila’s Broken English and Simon Armitage, the most celebrated British poet of his generation will read and DJ. Live musical entertainment from John Power (The La's/Cast) who returns to Hay with his beautiful album “Willow She Weeps", Jay Lewis (Cracatilla/The La’s) and Simon Onions, the cream of folk guitar, in the vein of Jansch and Fahey plus surprise Special Guests and not forgetting resident To Hell and Slide DJ Mike Funk till late. Buy Now
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Saturday 26th May
F4 CFUK presents ... A literary lunch 12.30pm SAL £3.00
Kick-start your festival this year with CFUK. Always exciting and often controversial, launch parties for Wales' #1 Litzine have become legendary in their own right. With confirmed appearances from Mike Jenkins, Gary Raymond, Tyler Keevil, Hangetsu and Dylan Moore, this one should be no different. Come to the launch and then join the writers for lunch... entry includes a FREE copy of the magazine. Buy Now
F5 Tony Curtis 2.30pm PB £3.50
Dublin-born poet Curtis is the author of four collections of poetry, a member of Aosdána, the Irish academy of arts, and the recipient of the National Poetry Prize. “He's a song master, a riddler, a humdinger. He honours Samuel Beckett and his Granny with equal gusto… unique in contemporary Irish poetry, foraging and forging the uncreated, breaking all our hearts.” Paula Meehan. Buy Now
F6 To Hell with Mike Read 6pm BL £10 per team of 4
Hosted by three legends of British rock journalism Nick Kent, NME, Rolling Stone and author of The Dark Stuff; Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, Rolling Stone and author of Rip It Up and Start Again; John Harris, NME, Select, Mojo and author of The Last Party. Test your pop wits in this quiz covering music from the 70s, 80s and 90s. Entrance is per team of 4 with prizes awarded for Gold, Silver and Bronze. Buy Now
F7 To Hell with Music Journalists 8pm The Legion £3.00
An ‘in conversation’ on the Golden Years of British rock writing with Nick Kent, Simon Reynolds & John Harris; each of whom will DJ a set later in the evening at the In the Pines event. Buy Now
F8 Not The End of The Festival Party 7pm PH £Free
Meanwhile the Youth Club's Junk Percussion Group will be bashing it out; it's an all-star knees up! Headliners are Railroad Bill - Cardiff skiffle sensation; the music fast and furious, taking in country, blues and rock and roll with songs about trains, gambling, wild west outlaws, chain gangs, vegetables?! and cake!! Able support from rockers About Blank, singer-song-sculptor of off beat pianosongs Matt Winkworth, reggae/ska from With Flying Colours, and taking international drum and flute traditions into a new dimension Zashiki Warashi. Spoken word from slam Sex-Goddess Lucy English & the delightful rantings of Rob Gee 'He’s a performance poet, but don’t worry he’s not shit’ Jimmy Carr. Buy Now
F9 In The Pines 9pm BL £5.00
Bringing its acclaimed monthly club to Hay In The Pines treats us to a unique celebration of folk and all its different incarnations (wyrd-folk, folk-rock, progressive folk, new folk, protest folk etc) they also like to play country, blues and psychedelia. With live music from Voice Of The Seven Woods, The Monk’s Kitchen as well as DJ sets from the legendary Cherrystones, Lee Gorton from The Down At The Redbricks club, Nick Kent, Simon Reynolds and John Harris. Buy Now
F10 Primrose Singers - Candlelit Madrigals 10pm SAL £3.00
The Primroses will sing some early church music by Thomas Tallis interspersed with Mozart's ‘Ave Verum Corpus’ and Bruckner's ‘Locus Iste’ along with the more light-hearted ‘The Lord is my Shepherd’ and the Flower Duet by Delibes ending with the lovely Welsh folksong ‘Ar Lan Y Mor’. Buy Now
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Sunday 27th May
F11 In Translation - Georg Trakl 2.30pm PB £3.50
Trakl’s extraordinary and unclassifiable volume of work has been a source of inspiration for artists, musicians and writers for almost a century. Will Stone's outstanding new translation brilliantly captures the mesmerizing imagery and haunting visions of this highly sensitive and morbidly introspective poet. Aside from other translations Stone has also published several short collections of his own poetry and an essay on cult poet/singer-songwriter Nick Drake. Buy Now
F12 Kalachakra, The Wheel of Time 4pm BL £5.00
Women In Music Award winner Gaynor O'Flynn's film follows her as she travels to hear the Dalai Lama teach the sacred system of meditation that is Kalachakra. Through her eyes the film examines the plight of the Tibetan people as they struggle to preserve their ancient Buddhist belief. Followed by an intimate acoustic performance of songs from her CD "Who Am I?" and chat on how her experience working for the Dalai Lama has influenced her life and music "At times you think Astrid Gilberto, then you switch to the more obvious ones of Amos, Winehouse, Wainwright or a more relaxed Harvey" Blues Matters Magazine. Buy Now
F13 Matter: 6 5pm SAL £Free
We invite you to enjoy readings from this year’s Matter:6 anthology of new fiction, poetry and script from established and up-and-coming writers produced in association with the Writing MA at Sheffield Hallam University www.matter-magazine.co.uk Readings from Christine D’Mello, Cathy Bolton, Lesley Jackson, Joseph Sheehan, Alison Claybourne and John Hilton Buy Now
F14 Fringe Shorts 6pm BL £Free
A powerful series of art and narrative films selected and introduced by Lee Hassall. Films by - Jack Herbert - Dog Flap starring Kris Marshall (My Family); Guy Begbie - Domestic Interior, House of Memory; Jenny Rush - No Rush; Rachel Entwistle - Experimental Series; Soozy Roberts - Miraculous Myfanwy, Milky Mammaries, Body Cupboard2, Fairy Light Lingerie. Buy Now
F15 Surrealism: Here & Now 7pm SWN £4.00
Leeds Surrealist Group, in dazzling obscurity since 1994 presents an evening of talks, short films, poetry readings and discussions that will challenge misconceptions about surrealism being an ‘art’ movement or a bizarre ‘style’. Through evidence of contemporary surrealist activity from around the world, they will demonstrate the movement’s continued creative and critical life. The evening will include the launch of Down Victory!, the first book on their Surrealist Editions imprint. Buy Now
F16 The Reading Room 7.30pm LIB £5.00
Three Men, Three Lives, Three very different stories - Dominic left Poland to escape the communist regime and uses the library as a tool for research. For Harvey it is a sanctuary away from the world of hard drugs, whilst middle aged Ross seems the most ordinary of the three but then in The Reading Room, things are not always what they seem! A compelling one man play from Blue Lizard Theatre Company (suitable for ages 14+) See Event F 19 also. Buy Now
F17 Welsh & East European Folk Double Bill 8pm PH £7.50
Multi instrumentalist Ceri Rhys Matthews, (founding member of Fernhill) and award winning fiddle player Christine Cooper take a refreshingly simple and understated approach; revealing the beauty and subtlety of Welsh traditional melody. SILD (Estonian word for bridge) are Martin Leamon on guitar and Sille Ilves on Hiiu-kannel (bowed harp) and vocals; together they have developed a truly original fusion of their two different musical cultures, rooted in tradition yet thoroughly modern. Buy Now
Sponsored By Marijana Dworski
F18 get Up to Get down pt.2 8.30pm BL £4.50
The Wax Monsters are back to spin the finest funk, soul, breaks & beats for your pleasure. Come early or book tickets in advance as last year's sold out by 10pm! Buy Now
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Monday 28th May
F19 Characters in Search of an Author 11am LIB £10.00
Test the mettle of your creations at this two-hour writing workshop with Steve Ashton and Marian McCraith of Blue Lizard Theatre Company (Event F16). Choose setting, props and actions as part of your script. Writing exercises will be structured to help you build characters with a unique voice and convincing story to relate. Places limited so please book in advance. Buy Now
F20 Alzheimer Memoirs Midday SAL £Free
A reflection on Memory, and on the power of love and hatred to affect our view of the past. It explores the destruction of Manchester and Dresden in the Second World War, and the destruction of memory at the individual level by old age and illness. It also looks at the remedies of artificial memory in our photographs, CDs, computer hard drives. And how both recreational and prescription drugs, and a new range of battlefield chemicals may soon be enhancing or destroying our ability to think and remember. The Alzheimer Memoirs will be recited by Dora Clouttick and Stewart MacNally. Speak, Memory…… Buy Now
F21 Soleïman Adel Guémar / Tom Cheesman 2.30pm PB
£3.50"Britain has inadvertently inherited a political poet of stature, one whose language sings... in the excellent translation by Tom Cheesman (Hafan Books), and John Goodby, Guémar’s poems carry all their native force and brusque wit.” Lis Appignanesi. Born and raised in Algiers persecuted journalist Guémar sought the safety of the UK for himself and his family in 2002 and has been living & writing here ever since. Buy Now
F22 At Home in Hay 7pm PH £7.50
An evening of parlour entertainment with pieces from Mozart to Modern, from small choir to solo - madrigals, jazz, classics, humour, audience participation - its all here; brilliant piano, heart-melting solos, scintillating harmonies, magical melodeon, frivolous folk songs, and a bit of fun too!!..... You really can't afford to miss it......Can you? All Profits from this event will be donated to NW Trust Reg. Charity No.1058757. Buy Now
F23 rePublicof digital cabaret present 'Night of the Living Read' 8pm BL £5.50
On the fringes of the official festival a ghostly utterance can be heard, first a whisper then a yell. In a seance of speaking and singing lit by primitive digital trickery, the written word is brought to life in all it's quivering naked glory. In a specially created show for the Hay Fringe, each singer, poet and performer interacts with the flickering screen in a night of digital cabaret. After the celebrities of the official festival have returned to their beds, Night of the Living Read unleashes the word on altogether less trustworthy lips. Admission only £5 if you bring your favourite book. The night will elevate/descend still further, from 11pm with music from the legendary DJ Dad and guest MCs of a conscious persuasion. Buy Now
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Tuesday 29th May
F24 Frances Presley 2.30pm PB £3.50 Presley, who lives in London and Somerset, works part time in the Poetry Library. Myne: new and selected poems and prose, 1976-2006, was published last year by Shearsman Books, and includes sequences based on her life in the West Country, of which the most recent is ‘Stone settings’, a response to the unique and puzzling geometry of Neolithic stone monuments on Exmoor. Buy Now
F25 20,000 Leagues under the Office 7.30pm PH £6.00
Two office workers on a lunch break suddenly find themselves plunging towards the centre of the earth in Publick Transport’s hit debut show. En route they discover: ingenious bracing positions, an obsession with rhubarb crumble, cannibalism, Ronnie Biggs, confessions of love and ultimately themselves. A hair raising ride through slapstick parody and melodrama ... “A brilliant reinvention of comedy” Three Weeks. (suitable for ages 10+) Buy Now
F26 Rob Gee & Skatz 9 pm PH £5.00
Uncompromising and dangerously close-to-the-bone songs and general stupidity. "Had the audience in stitches … a big thumbs-up and definitely an act to look out for" BBCi “Songs about stuff there shouldn’t be songs about … breathtakingly funny” The Caper.
Rob & Skatz have been sent out into the community by the Government (Social Services) to Make People Better. Award-winning performer Rob Gee and highly respected musician Skatz have pooled their collective writing and musical talents with a killer set of songs on the seedy side of life. Be warned: they’re very very wrong. Buy Now
F27 Spinal Flat Your library on the floor 10am - 7pm GLB £Free
The floor of a former Methodist Chapel will be gradually inscribed with the titles of your favourite books. Come and place your suggestions into The Hat and watch it happening from the Gallery gallery. Timothy Donaldson Lettering Artist Daily from 29th - 31st May
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Wednesday 30th May
F28 Joel Lane 2.30pm PB £3.50
“A powerful and well-integrated collection of poems in which there is much that you will not easily forget....this is indeed poetry on the edge” Edwin Morgan on The Edge of the Screen. In a society that is as much at war with its own possibilities as it is at war with other nations Lane constantly seeks out constructive strategies for living in these critical times. “..his sensual, elegiac, urban poetry has a sweet clarity” Carol Ann Duffy. Buy Now
F30 Sifting Identity 5pm SAL £Free Come and hear Cinnamon poets Marilyn Jenkins, Judy Kendall and clare e.potter perform work from their acclaimed debut collections. Japan to Wales via Louisiana, a journey of place, but also of identity. Buy Now
F31 Fringe Film Club - West African Double Bill 7.30pm PH £5.00 As part of the celebrations for Hay's recent twinning with Timbuktu, in association with The Screen At Hay we present:
Waiting for Happiness Dir. Abderrahmane Sissako,
In Nouadhibou, a lonely and isolated Mauritanian village, sandwiched between the Atlantic Ocean and the Sahara Desert, seventeen-year old Abdullah, arrives from Mali to visit his mother before leaving for Europe. Unable to speak the local Hassanya language and dressed only in Western clothes, he is a stranger in a strange land. Sissako skilfully portrays the conflict between Western modernization and local African traditions, basing the story on his own experience of exile and return. It won the International Film Critics award for best film in the Un Certain Regard at Cannes 2002.
Whose World Is It Anyway ? Music in Motion
The story of one Seckou Keita, a young Senegalese Kora player who relocated to the UK in 1998. His story is the same as many other musicians who come from all over the world to make a career and new life in the UK. While having performed extensively in Senegal with many other artists from the region, he had yet to perform as an artist in his own right. He needed to go back home and face the scrutiny of his family, friends, fellow musicians and the general public. In December 2006 Seckou finally went back and toured with his Quartet on both familiar and unfamiliar ground. This is the story of his return. Introduced by Seckou Keita with Q&A afterwards. £1 discount for advance tickets to SAH members. Soft drinks on sale but B.Y.O.B. Buy Now
Sponsored By The Sensible Book Shop
F32 C.O.C. Comedy Tour 8pm BL £3.00
Confederacy of Comedians brings their promotional tour to Hay as a warm up for the inaugural Wales Comedy Festival in Cardiff this summer (6th - 15th July). Appearing will be comedians featured in the forthcoming BBC TV series "Funny Business", which has been looking for new Welsh comedy talent through a series of competitions around Wales. Join us to see if they found any! Buy Now
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Thursday 31st May
F33 Michael Haslam 2.30pm PB £3.50
Pennine poet Haslam sees his job as “brewing strong lyric from the mash of his ordinary life: working the mills, the dole, walking the hills as he goes, composing a liberal philosophy of the tea-break.” Robert Potts wrote in the Guardian of The Music Laid Her Songs in Language; “I haven't read anything that sounds as beautiful as this for years...” Buy Now
F34 It's a Border Thing 7pm PH £5.00
Singer-songwriter Stef Giaccone's musical journey has taken him through avant garde rock, jazz, punk & playing support to Sonic Youth to recent collaborations with Welsh guitarist Dylan Fowler. By contrast the unsigned Jess Childs' self-penned organic country style has developed naturally growing up in a remote Breconshire farmhouse . This year Justin Morris & David Weston recorded their first album on Avocado Records; displaying elements of folk, gypsy and latin jazz mixed with modern influences of Joe Satriani & Pat Metheny. "Sensational" Richard Chapman (The Complete Guitarist). Finally, hailing from the wild hills of Shropshire "fretboard wizard" (Time Out) Benji Kirkpatrick (Bellowhead/Faustus) on six and twelve string guitars & bouzouki. Buy Now
Sponsored By Tom's Records
F35 2007: A Sonic-Odyssey 8pm BL £3.00
The Wax Monsters celebrate the 40th anniversary of the technicolor dream; psychedelic grooves & acid rock with projections, visuals and films - Zone in, wig Out! Buy Now
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Friday 1st June
F36 In Translation - Inna Lisnianskaya 2.30pm PB £3.50/£3
For many years her work went unpublished in the Soviet Union although she is now recognised as one of it's foremost writers. In his sensitive and compelling new translation, Daniel Weissbort offers English-language readers the opportunity of becoming acquainted with the work of this passionate, honest and totally human poet. “The only echo I clearly discern in Lisnianskaya's poetry is that of Akhmatova...” Joseph Brodsky. Valentina Weissbort will read the Russian. Buy Now
F37 Tales from a Paralalia Universe 7pm BL £5.00
Part road movie, part adventure, mostly poetry …..From New York to Texas to Alabama and back two very English poets discover America and America discovers them. Join David Johnson and Peter Hunter for a lively, entertaining and thought provoking record of their travels around the slam contests of the U.S.A. featuring documentary film footage, interactive commentary with special guest Canadian performance poet RC Weslowski. Buy Now
F38 Folk on the Fringe 8pm PH £7.50
An evening of contemporary twisted folk music with Nina Nastasia. Simultaneously tough and fragile, her songs crackle and smoulder with an intimate emotional honesty and a dark undertow. "..it's like nothing else around" Q Magazine. Richard James (Gorky's Zygotic Mynci) "crafted, insidious and cool" The Times. Switching between traditional Welsh language folk to drunken Spanish tales about yellow-finned tuna The Gentle Good is an engaging story-teller in whichever language takes his fancy – even English! Whilst singer, songwriter and Normandy resident Thee, Stranded Horse, plays acoustic guitar and kora – sometimes simultaneously! Music from DJ Carl Forecast. Buy Now
F39 The Golden Comb 2007 - Open Mic 9.30pm BL £2 Home Grown Boy returns to compere the legend that is The Golden Comb Award. Sit back and absorb or get up and have a go - just don't miss it! Basic PA but if you have any specific technical requirements for your act please contact Mike on 07890 606 554 and we'll see what we can do. To enter register with Mike or by email:info@hayfringe.co.uk before 4pm on Friday 1st June. This event is free to Ev. F37 ticket holders. Buy Now
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Saturday 2nd June
F40 The Reader - Bibliotherapy? 12.00pm SAL £Free
Bibliotherapy? Ann Drysdale reads and is in discussion with Raymond Tallis and Katie Peters. Ann's latest book Three-three, two-two, five-six, is "An extraordinary account of an all too ordinary experience: the treatment in hospital of an elderly man afflicted with cancer. At heart, this is a love story, told in lucid prose and poetry of often corrosive honesty …reading it is a unique experience" Herbert Williams. Ray Tallis has recently given up being a doctor to become a full time writer whilst Katie Peters works for The Reader in Liverpool which exists to promote reading for pleasure; join them for a discussion on health and reading. Buy Now
F41 Joolz Denby 2.30pm PB £3.50
Pray for Us Sinners marks an eagerly awaited return to verse for the Orange Prize short-listed author and, as the title suggests, we see a new, more reflective tone here - unravelling new interests in her own personal history and the mythology and morphology of goddess stories - as well as celebrating what Joolz has always known best: the wilderness within.' BuyNow
Sponsored by The Hay Book Company.
F42 African Dance Party with Seckou Keita Quartet 7pm PH £10.00 As part of the celebrations for Hay's recent twinning with Timbuktu - Dance Dance Dance as we bring you the very best in West African music from DJ Dudu Saar and the Seckou Keita Quartet who draw together musicians from Senegal, Italy, Egypt and the Gambia “They may all be from different places and traditions”, Keita points out, “but our instruments all speak the same language”. Buy Now
Sponsored By Addyman Books
F43 Guerilla Mash Up 8pm BL £Free
Round off your festival with a concoction of awesome audio-visuals hosted by local purveyors of quality short films and Indy media - Mash for whom cinema doesn't have to be structured to just films with rows of chairs, brings films, music and art together in an informal setting. Guerilla Cinema are a small group from Hereford frustrated with modern media with its political spin, lies and half truths......together Guerilla Mash Up brings you films and music to get you thinking, laughing and dancing. Buy Now
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