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 Hay” 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.
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, Mark Lynas and Tim Smit. 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.
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 program 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 Global partner of this Hay Festival is British Council in association with Qatar Airways and Kuoni, other sponsors include Maldives Traveller, Soneva Gili, Baros Maldives, Huvafen Fushi, Kurumba Maldives, Minivan News, Villa Hotels and many other local companies are participating this event.
Non- residents of the Maldives can buy tickets online from Monday 27 September. Residents of the Maldives can buy tickets at Olympus. Residents’ ticket for Friday 15 October are 50 Rf and for Saturday 16 October are 100RF. Ticket include all events on Aarah and return transport from Male. Tickets can be bought in person at the Olympus box office between 1pm and 10pm, or by phone on 9911429
vía hayfestival.com
