How do you find out what's going on?

One of my neighbours asked me this the other day, after she'd read about the First World War event at the Parish Hall that I wrote about. It was something her husband would have loved to go to, if he'd known it was on.

So, what do you do if you're new in town and don't know what's going on?

Well, the first port of call is the WyeLocal Magazine, which is free, and gets delivered to every house in Hay every month, and is also available elsewhere. This has a mixture of advertising, articles, local news - reports from councillors, Kirsty Williams the AM and Chris Davies the MP, and local groups. Flicking through the latest issue, there are reports from the Wye Players, and the Camera Club, the Glasbury Get-Together Club, Gwernyfed High School, the Chamber of Commerce, Dial a Ride, the Medical Centre, U3A, Hay2Timbuktu, and more. There's also a pretty comprehensive list of events at the back, such as Llyswen Parent and Toddler group, singing groups, Shakespeare Play Readings at Glasbury Village Hall, Bowling, Yoga, Pilates - even the Ddraig Wern Fencing Club which operates from Gwernyfed Community Sports Hall. The list also includes the Hay History Group and the Brecknock Wildlife Trust, the WI and Rainbow Guides. So that's pretty comprehensive.

Then there's Broadsheep, also free, and available at various locations around Hay. I picked my latest one up from the greengrocers. This gives details of what's on in Herefordshire and the Marches, for quite a wide area. Here there are art exhibitions, Theatr Hafren in Newtown and Theatr Brycheiniog in Brecon, craft fairs, vintage markets, art and craft workshops, cinema, dance performances and workshops, food festivals, and all sorts of music. There's poetry, storytelling, comedy, talks at local groups, complementary therapies, knitting groups, medieval fayres - a whole host of interesting things to see and do.

The Globe website has a wide range of activities on it, including the new Greenpeace group in Hay, Philosphy, Science, and Death cafes, and even guitar lessons, as well as the evening events like the weekly open mic and visiting musicians and so on.

Over at Baskerville Hall, there are all sorts of conferences and festivals going on throughout the year - like the Didgeridoo Festival, and a recent Transition Towns conference - and this Saturday, the annual Fireworks Display by the local Lions.

And it's also a matter of keeping your eyes open for posters around Hay - where the ATM at the HSBC used to be is being used as a public noticeboard at the moment, for instance, and there are always posters up in Shepherds and the Granary, and the launderette window, as well as other shops and cafes around town.

In fact, there's so much going on round here that I tend to mention only the ones that I'm likely to go to - and sometimes I only manage that after I've been!