Hay Festival has today announced the line-up for the 15th edition in Mexico, Hay Festival Querétaro (2- 7 September), with a blend of Nobel laureates, award-winning writers and journalists, global policy makers and innovators leading a digital programme spanning hundreds of free events over six days.
Explore the full programme and register for sessions now here.
A mixture of conversations, debates, performances and exclusive broadcasts from the Hay Festival archive will be streamed live at hayfestival.org/queretaro, with a selection of sessions accessible to an English language audience.
There are appearances from Nobel laureates Malala Yousafzai, Paul Krugman and Mario Vargas Llosa; critically acclaimed writers Siri Hustvedt, Salman Rushdie, Ida Vitale, Juan Villoro, Camila Sosa Villada, Paul Auster, Elena Poniatowska, Antonio Scurati, Mónica Ojeda and Irene Vallejo; scientists and thinkers Miguel Pita, Michelle Bachelet, Jon Lee Anderson and Carlos Castaño Uribe; director and actor Gael García Bernal; an online performance from Julieta Venegas; and exclusive broadcasts from the Hay Festival archive featuring John Le Carré, Dilma Rousseff, Olga Tokarczuk, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Margaret Atwood and Kazuo Ishiguro.
Cristina Fuentes, Hay Festival international director, said: “Here is a free programme of events to bring readers together with writers, thinkers and performers online. These intimate sessions, streamed globally, will celebrate the best of Mexican literature with a Hay Festival blend of international thought leaders to inspire and entertain. Join us.”
Hay Festival Querétaro follows the Festival’s first digital edition in the UK, which saw close to half a million people tune in and stream sessions. Other upcoming editions this autumn include Hay Festival Segovia, Spain (17-20 September); Hay Festival Europa28, Croatia (6-9 October 2020); Hay Festival Arequipa, Peru (5-8 November 2020); and Hay Festival Hay-on-Wye Winter Weekend, Wales (27-29 November 2020), which are expected to merge digital events with live sessions.
DIGITAL PROGRAMME IN DEPTH
Critically acclaimed writers from around the world present new work and discuss the power of literature in challenging times alongside contemporary greats of Mexican literature: Salman Rushdie presents his Cervantes satire, Quixote; Siri Hustvedt talks Memories of the Future; Nuria Barrios presents Todo arde; Mónica Ojeda talks about her poetry collection, El ciclo de las piedras; Liliana Blum talks Cara de liebre; Emiliano Monge presents No contar todo; Eduardo Rabasa talks El destino es un conejo que te da órdenes; Irene Vallejo presents El infinito en un junco; Juan Gómez Bárcena launches Ni siquiera los Muertos; Elizabeth Duval talks Reina; and Camila Sosa Villada presents Las Malas.
Prize-winning writers discuss their life’s work: Nobel laureate Mario Vargas Llosa talks about his fiction; Cervantes Prize-winner Ida Vitale discusses her latest release; and winner of the Eccles Centre & Hay Festival Writer’s Award 2020 novelist Daniel Saldaña París discusses his work in progress.
Current affairs and the latest ideas in STEM take centre stage with conversations featuring Nobel laureate and activist Malala Yousafzai; physicist Miguel Pita; the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet; journalists Jon Lee Anderson, Alma Guillermoprieto, Carolina Robino, Javier Moreno and María Hinojosa; environmentalist Julia Carabias, who delivers the 2020 Kew Platform event; anthropologists Carlos Castaño Uribe, Roberto Junco and Fiorella Fenoglio; and actor, director and film producer Gael García Bernal.
Classic events from the Hay Festival archive will be shown in a series of exclusive online broadcasts, including conversations featuring writers John Le Carré, Dilma Rousseff, Olga Tokarczuk, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Margaret Atwood and Kazuo Ishiguro.
Hay Festival Masterclasses will be free through the Festival to offer a taste of the sessions on offer, including Eréndira Dérbez and Claudia de la Garza on Machismo; Irasema Fernández on urban art; Miraz Mendoza on indigenous communities; and Juan Carlos Moreno Romo on Querétaro itself.
Hay Joven, the Festival’s free annual events for university students, will take place digitally with sessions featuring mathematician Clara Grima, BBC World journalists Carolina Robino and Liliet Heredero, activist Paola Kuri, and scientist Carla Santana Torres.
Hay Festivalito, the Festival’s strand of talks for young people, will also take place online for the first time with Spanish illustrator Miguel Brieva; author Francisco Hinojosa; and mathematicians Marta Gabriela Araujo and Guillermo Ramírez.
Evening concerts will keep the Festival’s party spirit alive with exclusive performances from Julieta Venegas, Molleto, Mantis Antea and Piatti Quartet.
Hay Festival Querétaro takes place with the support of principal sponsors La Alcaldía de Querétaro, regional sponsors and supporters SURA, AECID and AC/E; principal global partners the Welsh Government and Visit Wales; media partners BBC Mundo y El País; education and outreach partners Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León and Universidad Autónoma de México; and supporters Embajada de Colombia, Istituto Italiano de cultura, Instituto Goethe, Embajada de los Estados Unidos de América, Royal Botanical Gardens Kew, Blue Metropoli and Cálamo.
Explore the full programme of Hay Festival Digital Querétaro events and register for sessions now at here.