Noam Chomsky, Julia Gillard and Gordon Brown join line-up for the Hay Festival online event

Noam Chomsky, Julia Gillard, David Hockney and Gordon Brown are among 200 writers, artists and public figures set to appear at this year’s Hay Festival, which will take place online for a second year from Wednesday 26 May to Sunday 6 June.

The 34th edition of the literary event will be broadcast live from temporary studios in Richard Booth’s Bookshop in Hay-on-Wye due to pandemic restrictions.

The sessions will be free to view with registered users able to pose questions to the speakers.

Last year 500,000 people logged on to watch the festival, which raised £350,000 from donations. Hay also received a £596,000 cash injection from the Government’s Culture Recovery Fund.

“This spring we beam our programme to you from Richard Booth’s Bookshop in the heart of Hay-on-Wye, welcoming writers, readers, thinkers and dreamers together from around the world to join our digital party.” said Heather Salisbury, Hay Festival artist manager.

“We’ll meet this moment of challenge and change with inspiration and vision, and place our trust in the wisdom of writers to guide us through. Join us.”

Explore the programme and register for free now at hayfestival.org/wales

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