Around the Festival

 I had a day to wander around in Hay and down to the Festival site yesterday.

I started in the Honesty Gardens below the Castle, with a delicious goat curry from Trigg Foods, before I walked down to the Festival site.  There are shuttle buses again this year (£5 for all day travel), and a horse-drawn taxi - which is a real licensed taxi.  It's got the official sign on the back of the cart.  The cart is preceded by a man on a bicycle in a hi-viz vest, for safety.

Things change on the Festival site over the week - the stalls are expensive to hire, so some groups only do a few days and are then replaced by other groups.  So Leigh Day lawyers had disappeared, and have been replaced by Medecins sans Frontieres.  

Another new stall was Positive Action.  They follow the principles of their founder, EF Schumacher, who wrote the book Small is Beautiful.  They work with small communities around the world to find the best solution to local problems that works for them.  For instance, in Kenya, many young people left their communities to go to cities to find work, and Practical Action is now training some of those young people in regenerative agriculture methods so that they can support themselves, replenish the soil, protect their local environment and improve food security.  They have a website at www.practicalaction.org

I also had an interesting chat with the lady from a charity based in South Wales - Autistic Minds.  They work to help autistic people to have equal access to opportunities, support and services, and to form an integral part of their communities.  Most of the staff of the charity are themselves autistic, and they also have some spin-off companies.  Safe Shred Wales Paper Solutions is a company that shreds confidential documents safely, and they use the shredded paper to make paper-based plant pots for gardeners, animal bedding and eco-mulch.  Many of their staff are autistic.

One of the volunteers for Autistic Minds is now a paid member of staff, providing a 3D printing service called Ambition3D.  Mostly, Jake makes models for table-top roleplaying games in resin, but he also does commissions.  The models are available through the Autistic Minds Etsy store.

The other thing that they do is compile an online directory of services and businesses for people on the autism spectrum in the UK, at www.theautismdirectory.com

Meanwhile, in the food tent, there is an exhibition around the walls organised by the Friends of the River Wye, explaining the problems the river faces, mainly from chicken farms and fertiliser run-off.  It includes some information from Compassion in World Farming, which is opposed to intensive chicken farming (and the intensive rearing of other farm animals), with interviews from people around the world who have direct experience of living close to intensive farms.  It's well worth a look.

Back in the centre of Hay, I had a chat with one of the ladies who was part of the Free Palestine protest.  She turned out to be the same lady who taught me how to make rag rugs many years ago (I still have the tools), Jenni Stuart-Anderson.  She said that she should be concentrating on her rag rug making - she still runs workshops, and can be found at jenniragrugs.com and as part of www.creativebreaks.co.uk   But, she has personal friends who are stuck in Gaza, and are trying to raise enough money to bribe the guards at the Egyptian checkpoint to let them out.  The (very polite and quiet) protesters have been on the square every day of the Festival, handing out leaflets and chatting to people.

General Election

 A General Election has been announced for 4th July, and one household in Hay is making their feelings known already:

Around Hay in Festival Week

 I've been busy at work, so I haven't had a chance to look around town until today.

There's an interesting looking menu on offer at the Bean Box by the river from Chapel House Farm.

Origin Pizza have set up in the Old Post Office.

There's also the Pizza Box on the square, squeezed in between the clothes shop and the art gallery.  The art gallery has some rather nice pottery on display at the moment, as well as the art on the walls.

The photography studio above the British Legion has an exhibition of dog portraits outside, and inside the bar is open!

And the cash machine at the Craft Centre has run out of money - cash can still be obtained from the Post Office, for anyone with a UK high street bank account.

First Weekend of the Festival

 

Here's one of Danny Thomas's chainsaw sculptures.  There are lots more around the Festival site.

I went up there yesterday - Friday is secondary school day, so the site was full of young teenagers in school uniforms.  

There are some good stalls this year - I stopped to chat to Bonnie Helen Hawkins, who does the most marvellous detailed pencil drawings.  She has an obsession with Under Milk Wood, and a book of the poem illustrated with her work is due out soon.  I bought a notebook with a portrait of Michael Sheen on the front - he was on stage doing Under Milk Wood a year or so ago.  Bonnie's work can be found at www.bhhawkins.com  She also does oil paintings in a sort of Turner style, and illustrates books by Joanne Harris.

I also had an interesting conversation with a lady from Leigh Day, a law firm that wants to start legal action against Avara and other polluters of the River Wye to make them clean up the river.  I told her about some of the local initiatives that have been going on for several years now, and recommended that she contact people like Friends of the Upper Wye so they are not duplicating effort un-necessarily.

Meanwhile, the Poetry Bookshop has a Festival window display themed for Peace, around a new picture by Jackie Morris:

Today, there's music at Fair in the Square, and the Mad Hatter craft fair is in the Buttermarket.  There are also more stalls in the Cheese Market and around the edge of the square, plus food stalls.

Also up in the square was a small protest group with banners in support of Palestine.  They were handing out leaflets giving information on what ordinary people can do to help.  The suggestions include writing to your MP, boycotting the large firms like Macdonalds, Starbucks and Coca-Cola, Disney, Puma and Hewlett Packard, who are supporting the Israeli government, and donating to a variety of charities which are trying to help, including UNWRA Islamic Relief and the Red Crescent.

The main sponsor of Hay Festival this year was Baillie Gifford, the investment management firm.  However, Hay Festival has now dropped this sponsor, as several of the speakers at the Festival threatened to pull out if they were involved, because of their links to Israel.  The speakers included Charlotte Church, Nish Kumar, the Labour peer Shami Chakrabati and the MP Dawn Butler.  Baillie Gifford have been sponsoring the Festival since 2016.  

A group called Fossil Free Books was also objecting to Baillie Gifford's involvement in the Festival because of the firm's involvement in fossil fuels.  Baillie Gifford also sponsors the Edinburgh international book festival and the Cheltenham book festival, and run the Baillie Gifford prize for non-fiction.

There are only three food stalls in the Honesty Bookshop this year.  I had lunch from the vegan Indian curry stall - the dhal was very nice.  Other food there was Caribbean and Churros.

I also went down to the Secret Wine Bar for some local organic wine.  Just for the name, I chose the white wine Shouting At Weather! which was delicious.  The two vineyards are Whinyard Rocks in New Radnor (I was served by Susan), and Black Mountain Vineyard and Winery.  They have websites at www.whinyardrocks.com and www.blackmountainwinery.co.uk

Fund Raiser for Palestine

 A couple of girls were going round the market yesterday morning advertising a fund raiser in the Globe for Palestine that evening, starting at 5pm.

I didn't go down at 5pm, because I know from experience that events like this at the Globe rarely start on time, and so it proved.  They were having a bit of trouble with the electrics, and started quite a bit later than advertised.

The speaker was Neil, who works for an international Quaker organisation which reports to the UN.  Last year he was in the West Bank - he came home in September, just before the latest round of violence in Gaza began.  

The Quakers do not take sides.  They are there purely to report on human rights abuses, and to try to protect local people from harrassment.  For instance, the Israeli men who stopped every morning on their way to work to chuck stones at a Palestinian shepherd's donkey.  That sort of harrassment has been going on for years on the West Bank, around the illegal Israeli settlements (which also take much of the water locally).  The Israeli authorities have also been knocking down Palestinian houses for years, claiming that they have been built without a permit (which, of course, it is almost impossible for a Palestinian to get).  The speaker showed photos that he'd taken of these things happening, and also of an olive grove that had been burnt by Israeli settlers - and lots of pictures of heavily armed soldiers, police and settlers.

After the talk, there were lots of young musicians who were going to play while other activities took place around the Globe - designing placards for protests, writing to MPs and so on.

When I went to visit my mum recently, she gave me a Palestinian keffiyah which had been given to her partner about ten years ago by members of the Free Gaza movement, so I thought this was the perfect opportunity to wear it.  (Her partner has just died, which is why I went over to see that she was okay).  

When they first went to Cyprus they stayed in a hotel in Larnaca while they looked for an apartment to rent.  Members of the Free Gaza movement were staying in the same hotel while they were planning the convoy that sailed from Cyprus to Gaza with supplies that were not allowed through the Israeli checkpoints.  It was front page news at the time, especially when the Israeli navy stopped the convoy from getting through.

The Free Gaza people arrived back at the hotel despondent and hungry, and the hotel kitchens had closed for the night - which is when mum's partner took over the kitchen (he got on well with the hotel management) and put together a buffet for them, so at least they'd have something to eat.  That's when they gave him the scarf.

Secret Wine Bar

 The Secret Wine Bar will be popping up for the Festival again this year, in the Walled Garden on Belmont Road.  It will be open on Saturday 25th May and Sunday 26th May, and on the Saturday there will also be a cafe and plant stall in aid of the local Scouts.

The wine comes from local vineyards.

Wobbly Owl

 

Just opened where the Art Gallery used to be, opposite the Blue Boar.  As well as cider, I spotted honey just inside the door, but I'll have more time to investigate further on my next day off.

Byzantine Icon Exhibition

 Starting on 24th May, there will be an exhibition of Byzantine style icons at St John's Chapel, opposite Tomatitos.  The artists are Christina Watson and Petro Birov.

Local Author Debut

 I've just discovered (thanks to Malk Williams on Facebook) that Kandace Siobhan Walker has her debut book of poetry out.  It's called Cowboy, and it's available from the Poetry Bookshop.

Kandace has previously written short stories - she won the 4th Estate Guardian Short Story Prize in 2019, and she's a film maker.  She also won the White Review Poet's Prize in 2021.  She's also included in the book Welsh (Plural): Essays on the Future of Wales, where she talks about her experiences of growing up as a black girl in rural Wales.  Although she now lives in South London, her mum still lives near Hay - her mum being Marva Jackson Lord, who runs Griot Arts Ltd., a web design and digital media consultancy.

The Taxidermist's Art

 I've just been chatting to the chap who owns the antique shop at the bottom of the Pavement, next to the Poetry Bookshop.  He's just been re-arranging his window for the Festival, and pride of place is given to an enormous Asian water buffalo head.  With the horns, it takes up just about the entire width of the window!

He was pondering where he could put the crocodile skin he's also bought.  It's 14 feet long and 5 feet wide, and won't fit in the shop!  It's too big to hang outside the shop, too - at the moment it's folded up in the back of his van.  He opened the van up to show us.

The Tippett String Quartet

 Some time ago, I was given a discount card by the organisers of Hay Music, and this is the first time I've made use of it.

The Quartet is named for Sir Michael Tippett, a composer who died in 1998, so of course they played his 5th Quartet.  This was dedicated to Sally Groves when it was first performed in 1992, and she happened to be in the audience last night!

The first piece they played was Vaughan Williams' first string quartet, which he wrote after studying with Ravel in France, and somehow it manages to be very French, but instantly recognisable as Vaughan Williams at the same time.

After the interval, they launched into Schubert's string quartet known as Death and the Maiden.  This was written in 1824, so this is its 200th anniversary.  It's a thrilling piece of music, building up to a great finale, and it was lovely to see the cellist smiling to himself as he played - it obviously takes a lot of concentration to play, but he was still enjoying himself.  The applause at the end was rapturous.

The Tippett Quartet plays a wide variety of classical music - they had several CDs for sale at the back of the church, and I was delighted to find a recording of Korngold's string quartets.  I've known Korngold's music most of my life - he wrote the scores for several Errol Flynn movies!  I'm less familiar with his chamber music, so I shall be settling down later to enjoy that.

Hay Music have organised several concerts during Hay Festival, and the next non-Festival concert will be on 21st June at Hay Castle, with A4 Brass Quartet.  The quartet is formed of musicians from some of the best known brass bands in the country, including Brighouse and Rastrick, Fodens and Black Dyke, and they have a varied programme to play.  Tickets cost £20, or £10 for under-25s.

Post Box Topper for the Festival

 

It's almost Hay Festival time!

Bathing Status for the Warren Turned Down

Oliver Bullough had an article in last Thursday's Guardian about the campaign to clean up the River Wye.  There was a big meeting in the Parish Hall about  three years ago, where it was agreed (almost unanimously) to try to gain 'bathing status' for the river at the Warren.  This would mean that the quality of the water has to be monitored, by law, at least between May and September, and if the water quality is unsatisfactory, something has to be done about it.  One of the criteria for the granting of bathing status  is the number of people who swim at that location, or otherwise use the river.  

So during 2022, data was collected to show that people do use the river.  

One of the reasons the application was turned down was that the Welsh Government were concerned that too many bathers would have a negative environmental impact on the river.

So what appeared to be our only way of ensuring that the quality of the water was officially checked has been denied.  Citizen scientists have been monitoring the water quality, but they have no power to enforce action to stop sewage or other pollution going into the river.

However, it's not quite as simple as all that, as Sean O'Donohoe (the lone dissenting voice at that Parish Hall meeting) has pointed out, in a letter he sent to the Guardian and has now published on The Warren at Hay-on-Wye Facebook page.

He says that there were other problems with the application for bathing status that caused the Welsh Government to turn it down.  These included the lack of nearby toilets, and the difficulty of getting to the site by car.  Also, the Warren Trust, which owns and manages the Warren, were against the plan, as was the Town Council.  There were fears that the announcement of bathing status would attract more visitors to the Warren than the site could easily accommodate.

So here we are, three years down the line with the river still unprotected, even though it is a Site of Special Scientific Interest and a Special Area of Conservation.

Recently, the government at Westminster published an 'Action Plan'  to improve the River Wye - the official status of the river is "unfavourable - declining".  They identify the problems as follows:

Excess nutrients, especially phosphates, mostly from agricultural land.

Excess sediment, mostly from run off from agricultural land.

Hotter, dryer summers due to climate change.

The spread of invasive species like himalayan balsam, Japanese knotweed and giant hogweed.

They point out that the population of Atlantic salmon is in a critical state - down to 2,000 to 3,000, from 50,000, and with fewer eggs laid than are necessary to maintain the population in the river.

They say they have been working with farmers and other bodies and provided advice on slurry and manure from chicken farms, as well as working with land managers to plant 167 hectares of new woodland to stabilise the river banks.  They have also appointed a River Champion, Anthea McIntyre.

However, the Angling Trust are not impressed.  They say this is a small step when big strides are needed, and they point out that the Action Plan focusses only on Herefordshire when the River Wye is a cross border river.

Fish Legal, who have been bringing court actions against government bodies to clean up rivers, are also not impressed.

The Country Land and Business Association comments that the government plan mostly repackages previously committed funding - so the £35 million they talk about to help farmers improve their practice is not new money.

To sum up, the River Wye is in trouble, and there seems to be no clear path forward to improve the health of the river - and the government Action Plan seems to be inadequate for the purpose.

Vintage Rolls Royce

 

This car was driven through Hay about half an hour ago.  It's a 1926 Rolls Royce Landaulette, and according to an article in the Daily Express, it was used as Pop Larkin's car in the 1990s series The Darling Buds of May!  In 2021, it was sold at auction for £63,000.

May Hay Forum

 Only seventeen people turned up this month, but it was a particularly nice evening for sitting in gardens.

Those of us who were there were able to meet Father David, the new vicar of St Mary's, who seems like a lovely chap, and will probably fit in very well in Hay.  He's worked for various charities and the NHS, and a local authority before he became ordained, and his partner Father Neil is also a priest in Herefordshire.  They also have two beagles.  He was asked if he was musical, and he said he was, but he wasn't a trained musician.

Then Rev. Simon from Abbey Dore gave a fascinating talk about pilgrimages.  Priests are encouraged to go on retreat regularly, but he found that it wasn't quite enough to just go to a retreat house and sit quietly and read for a week.  So he started to research pilgrimages.  He thought the Camino de Santiago de Compostella would be too busy - thousands of people walk or cycle the Camino every year (and two of them came to talk about it at a previous Hay Forum).  So he found a route dedicated to St Francis of Assissi in Italy, which was obscure enough that it didn't even have an English guidebook at the time.  There's also a southern route dedicated to the Archangel Michael, and he's walking them a bit at a time.  You get a sort of passport that is stamped in every place you stay, and that entitles you to stay at small rooms attached to churches along the way.

Having got the taste for pilgrimages, he started to develop a local route around the Golden Valley, linking the churches and holy wells there (and remembering the local pubs and shops where snacks could be bought, which helps the local economy).  One of the first groups to try the route was a young women's choir from the United States, who sang in every church, and along the way.  These are organised, guided pilgrimages, run through a national charity, so you can't just set off - you have to book and pay for the accommodation and guide.  The route is circular, starting and ending at Hereford Cathedral (where pilgrims can now stay the night), so pilgrims can arrive and leave by train.

Then he went off on sabbatical to research other pilgrim routes to see how they did it - in Orkney and Ireland.  Orkney is a bit more difficult to get around on foot, because there aren't as many places where pilgrims can stay the night - the Saint being honoured here is Magnus, and one of the stops on the pilgrimage trail is St Magnus' Cathedral in Kirkwall.

In Ireland, he came across a lot of stone crosses, and went up Croagh Patrick, dedicated to St Patrick.  Many people climb the mountain barefoot, and when he went, he found that many of the barefoot pilgrims were from the Traveller community.

In the absence of Father Richard, music for the forum was recorded - the lady who organises the Forum wanted to honour Michael Flatley, the non-traditional Irish dancer who created Riverdance, so we finished with some music from Lord of the Dance.

Father Richard will be back at 9pm on Friday 31st May to play the organ for A Cottage on Dartmoor, as part of the Hay Festival, and he will be doing an organ recital on Saturday June 1st and the next Hay Forum will be at 6.30pm on Saturday 8th June.  The cost is £5 on the door.

Book Launch at North Books

 I spent a fascinating morning at North Books yesterday at the launch of Rachel Clarke's debut novel Tarot: Crossing Worlds - the first in a projected trilogy set in a variety of parallel universes linked by portals, each with its own unique Tarot deck.  It's a fascinating premise, and we also had the opportunity to design our own Tarot card, but the conversation ranged very widely, including one lady telling the story of her uncle, a fighter pilot during the Second World War, who was shot down over Provence and sadly died there.

Rachel has worked for several years as a script editor, so she knows how stories are put together, and of course she has an interest in Tarot cards.  The book is being marketed as a Young Adult title, but several of us were intrigued enough to buy a copy for ourselves (a good book is a good book, however it is marketed).

Coffee was available during the session, for £3.

Next Friday, starting at around 10.30am, four poets from the Hay Writers' Circle will be launching their pamphlets of poems.

The Tippett String Quartet

 The latest concert organised by Hay Music will be the Tippett String Quartet, on Friday 10th May at 7pm at St Mary's Church.  They will be playing music by Ralph Vaughan Williams, Michael Tippett and Franz Schubert.

The Lark Ascending, by Vaughan Williams, is one of my absolute favourite pieces of music, so I'm looking forward to hearing some of his music for quartets.

Tickets are £20, or £10 for under 25s, and there are a few free tickets for under 25s on a first come, first served basis.

At the Polling Booth

 Quite a few people were turning up to vote when I went down to the Sports Pavilion this morning, and I wasn't the first person to complain about the need for photo ID.  The lady behind the desk said that she was keeping a log, and would pass it on to someone senior.

Chatting to a couple outside the Pavilion, they said they didn't like the photo ID thing either, and wished that they had thought to make a formal complaint.

Artistraw New Collection of Ciders, Perry and Cider Brandy

 I'm not really a cider drinker, but it's still very pleasing to see Artistraw Cider doing so well.  They have a cider orchard in Clifford, with a small shop, a market stall on Hay's Thursday market, and also sell online.  They have just announced this season's batch of four new ciders, a perry, and a cider brandy in collaboration with Ludlow Distillery.

They started their business in 2017 with 550 bottles, and now they have increased the amount to around 9,000 bottles annually.

It's nice to see some good cider news, in a week when Heineken has cut down 300 acres of cider orchard in Monmouthshire.  Heineken now owns Bulmer's cider.