Hay Festival Maldives Announced
Join us for a festival of ideas, conversations and fun as we bring together the best international and local artists from the fields of literature, art, science, drama, music and poetry, celebrating one of the world’s most hopeful new democracies and oldest island cultures.
Speakers include historian and biographer Jung Chang, author of Wild Swans and Mao, the novelist Ian McEwan, author of Atonement, and environmental writers and campaigners Montagu Don, Tim Smit, Mark Lynas and Chris Gorell-Barnes. They will appear alongside Maldivian writers including Ogaru Ibrahim Waheed and Fathmath Nahula. Mauritian-born, electronic fusion artist Ravin provides musical enchantment, and local bands performing include Fasy Live.
The festival celebrates 2,000 years of Maldivian island culture. The Maldives has been a multi-party democracy for only two years and this new freedom has opened up a host of new opportunities both culturally and politically. The president has set his country a target of becoming carbon neutral within ten years and the festival provides a platform for focusing international attention on the challenges facing the Maldives through climate change.
“The Hay Festival is a place where the cultural, political and social issues of our age are discussed, examined and explored. An up and coming young democracy with the most beautiful beaches on Earth – the Maldives will be the perfect backdrop for a new Hay Festival” said President Mohamed Nasheed, 2 June 2010
The festival will be launched on 14 October 2010 in the capital, Male, before moving to Aarah, giving rare public access to the Presidential Retreat Island.
As well as the live events, Hay Festival Maldives will commission a series of lectures to be delivered online by prominent artists, scientists and historians. These will debate environments that are facing transformation over the next one hundred years and what this means for the people living there. These online lectures will be launched as part of the Festival in October.
The Festival with the National Centre for the Arts is developing a rolling programme of workshops during 2010/2011 which will teach children and young people how to interview their parents and grandparents, to gather and record legends and stories about their experiences of life in the Maldives over the last one hundred years. These stories will be collected in a huge online library, to be the launchpad for the Festival in its second edition in 2011.
The final day of the Festival is dedicated to the next generation of artists. Workshops for schools and colleges will be available for students to come and learn from experts about topics such as film-making, publishing, writing and journalism.
The Festival begins with live bands playing on the Carnival Ground in Male at 7pm on Thursday 14 October – please come and join us.
Tickets will be available from the NCA after the programme has been finalised in early September.
Hay Festival is delighted to be working with the Government of the Maldives and is very grateful for all their support and that of the Maldives High Commission in the UK.
Hay Festival Maldives is in association with
Main partner
Kuoni
Global partner
British Council
Hay Festival Maldives is supported by
Key partners
Soneva Gili by Six Senses
Per AQUUM – Huvafen Fushi
Universal Resorts – Velassaru, Baros and Kurumba
Partners
Villa Hotels
Maldives Transport and Contracting Company
Environmental Justice Foundation
Bandos Island
MusicWorld
Bluepeace
The participating Maldivian artists are currently being programmed. If you wish to be considered, please send details to maldives@hayfestival.com
The events at the festival will be held in Dhivehi and English with simultaneous translation available.
For further information please see hayfestival.com/maldives
or call Project Director Andy Fryers on 00 44 (0) 7766 755 722 or email andy@hayfestival.com
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