Has Hay lost its way?

First of all apologies for erratic postings from Hay. Access to the internet is a bit like the curate's egg- good in parts.

The good news is that the weather has warmed up. The bad news is general muttering that somehow Hay has changed i.e. lost its focus, too diffuse. too big., even (whisper it it horror!) dumb-down.
Many people I spoke to, and we felt the same, can't quite their figure it out but something has happened.

Maybe its the troubled times we live in and authors are not paid to attned ( they get given a few bottles of wine) . Perhaps the books are not being written.

Once you had real difficulty choosing between events. Now, especially mid-week, you find yourself struggling to find stuff that interests you.
OK all the big names are at the weekend but for a variety of reasons we can't make either weekend.

Take today for example. There was a lecture given by the Royal Society on "The Next Big Thing" chaired by Nobel prizze-winning geneticist John Sulston.

Now if anything was going to be ahead of the curve, something touching on the zeitgeist of our age , this would surely be it.

Instead it was an open discussion with four researchers who were clearly used to doing outreach educational programmes and it was more suitale for a group of 14 year olds than a Hay audience.

Hay town is complaining about the lack of footfall too. Once ensconed in a tent you are less likely to brave the elements to go up there. We did and discovered that our favourite bookshsop had closed and been turnd into a dress shop!



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