Hay Festival 2011

I can’t make it to the Hay Festival this year for various reasons.  Today, @MarDixon posted up some pictures and one in particular reminded me what I was missing.  This is so typically Hay:

The venues can be quite huge and packed to the edges.  The audiences can be made up of all ages with many taking it very seriously, to the point of being unforgiving, but a little humour is never far away.  When you look at this photograph you can understand that it might be good to be on stage and see a vast expanse of black only – until the lights kick in for questions at the end.  A lot of talent and dedication goes into each event, much of it hidden and taken for granted by those who attend.

I wish them well, all of them, and hope to return in the future.  For now, I am dealing with withdrawal symptoms but my ‘to do’ list is a major distraction.  Until I saw that pic…

You can view Mar's other pics here.