Our monthly 'Meet the Haymaker' series shares stories of the change-makers at the heart of Hay Festival Global and the impact it has had on their lives. This month, get to know Siôn Tomos Owen, bilingual presenter and voice-over artist, writer, illustrator and muralist, and star of this month's Scribblers Cymraeg.
What does Hay Festival mean to you?
Well it means quite a lot to me because I was someone who went to Hay Festival regularly, my father used to take me up there to exchange books and sell books, and I’d get a caricature every time I was up there, usually every three or four years. So I always saw it as a place of books and when I started going to Hay Festival as well I thought wow, Hay Festival is already a magical place but now it’s an annual place that I can go and just have a little holiday for my brain. I’m not one for lying in the sun, I'd rather bask in other people's words and music and talk books. I think it’s a special place to appreciate other people and to make you understand the world a bit better through other people’s words.
Favourite memory of Hay Festival?
My favourite memory of Hay Festival is receiving a paper rose. My one is a bit dusty, it's been on my wall for 15 years now. I was a 24-year-old poet who was angrily scribbling and shouting words into small poetry gatherings in South Wales, and then wrote a book and I was asked by Parthian to be part of a celebration of Welsh authors. We went up, slept in a tent in the field, and then we got ushered in and I remember thinking, oh it's going be like one of the other poetry events I have been to, but then we sold out the room and we had to move to a bigger room which was a bit overwhelming. We were on a bill with people I admired and some super dupers on there, that I thought oh wow how am I on here, I had a bit of a wobble thinking I shouldn't be here. But then people were saying lots of kind things about my work and then I realized that we were on the same bill, we were all equal on the same bill. It was eye-opening to see so many people who wanted to hear poetry and short stories and I just remember thinking it was like a warm bath of appreciation just to see other people get up on stage. It was just you and your words and hearing sounds of appreciation, that's what I remember, just people smiling and the understanding that what you can write can come across and have an effect on other people. I remember doing it in lots of other places but doing it to so many on that day and then getting a rose made of words and going back to the Green Room and seeing some people, some authors I admire and chatting to them, it was a special memory.
Have you ever changed your mind on something having been to a Hay Festival event?
Well, this is quite a strange one because I did a project with Literature Wales and WWF last year based on nature. I went up to see a few authors and I came across one who was talking about the effects of mushrooms and mycorrhizal, small roots that link together in nature, and I got speaking to a few people and one of them took me over to a store nearby which sold mushroom tinctures. They were growing mushrooms out of books and different things like that. We had a long discussion about how nature can affect writing and how it can have a positive effect on you. One guy was talking about the effects that flora and fauna and smells can have on you, and I remember thinking yes I have certain smells and music that I sometimes use to write about certain things. We got talking about Lion's Mane mushroom and I went home and started taking this Lion's Mane tincture which is supposed to help you focus on writing. Since then I've probably had the most prolific period of writing ever, I’ve written six books this year alone, five books since taking this tincture and it’s completely changed how I go about writing. So, I’m not saying that this Lion’s Mane mushroom has specifically done it but without Hay Festival I wouldn't have come across it.
Who was the best speaker or performer you saw on a Hay Festival stage?
There's two, I went this year and I ended up going to see Casi Wyn’s workshop with young people, I didn't know it was for young people at the time, so I sat in on it because of her use of song lyrics and the way she uses Welsh and English and it blew my mind. The fluidity between Welsh and English didn't feel like a bilingual session, I speak Welsh and English anyway but you could see people appreciating the sound of language, especially because of the lyrics and the way lyrics can come across in different languages. She helped the group create a poem in lots of different languages, there were ten different languages within the room at that time. That was incredible to see.
The one before that I was part of a writers exchange with Indian and Welsh writers, a few years ago and I was on the way to see João Morais read and I can hear this music and it was fusion, I'm a big jazz fan, but this was a fusion of jazz and Indian music. I didn't go in to see that event but I could hear it and I stood outside for a while just listening to this music, and then I went to see João Morais for a pint afterwards and it turns out they were in India at the same time as us and it was a musician called Tomos Williams, who I'm now massive fan of and he's a friend as well. Without lingering outside one of the tents listening to Khamira, which was the band, I don't think I would have gone to every single tour Tomos Williams has been on since.
What advice do you have for a first-timer at the Festival?
If you are going as a punter I would say go to the things you don't think you’ll like and just be open to all these new stories. Fair enough if you want to go see your favorite authors as well but just go see some of the weird and wonderful things you’ve never thought about going to see, like a discussion on the jazz lyrics of the Twenties or how walking mountains can inspire you to write graphic novels about water. Things that you wouldn't think that you would enjoy, I guarantee you’ll find them interesting because I've been to tens or even hundreds by now that I've thought ‘oh I'm not sure I’m going to enjoy this’ and I've enjoyed every minute. If you’re going up as a writer or a performer my advice – having had some funny anxiety issues when I was over there – is that you are good enough to be there. If you've been asked to be there you’re good enough. People write thousands of poems, books and non-fiction, and people write thousands of terrible novels, but if you've been asked to go there by Hay you've probably written a good one and you deserve to be there. So enjoy it, take the kind words and put them into your pockets, write them down and read them afterwards just to remember that you know people said nice stuff about the work. Take them into your heart and appreciate them and don't think you're not good enough.
Sum up Hay Festival in five words or less…
A holiday for your brain