Hay Festival ticket sales skyrocket

Hay Festival ticket sales skyrocket NEWS

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Despite the recession, ticket sales for the literary event of the year Hay Festival have increased with an anticipated 230,000 to be sold.

Stars from the literary and Arts world will be visiting the Powys book town, which runs from today until 5 June.

Tickets for many of the events at Hay 2011 are £5 and event director Peter Florence believes keeping the admission prices so low has been the key to this year's sales.

Florence said the festival is 'slightly bigger this year' and the organisers wanted to keep the prices low because 'everybody's going through a hard time.'

'It seems to have worked because the numbers are up quite considerably, about 15% on last year, and we're expecting to sell 230,000 tickets over the course of the festival. The response has been absolutely phenomenal.' He added.

The festival first started in 1988 when it was simply 'a few like-minded friends' who gathered for a weekend of sharing literature.

Since 1988 it has grown in size and stature, attracting showbiz celebs, top writers, politicians, musicians and the general public by their thousands. In 2001, former US President Bill Clinton famously named it 'the Woodstock of the mind'.

This year's line-up includes extraordinary wildlife photographer Sue Flood, who will be discussing her adventures in the Polar Regions, Ralph Fiennes who will speak about Shakespeare's Coriolanus and Afro Celt Sound system in concert.

Other guests include Michael Morpurgo, Nobel Peace Laureate Mohamed El Baradei, Nobel Laureate V.S. Naipaul, Vanessa Redgrave and Brat Pack actor Rob Lowe. The festival also features comedy from Dara O'Briain, Jo Brand, Sue Perkins and Sani Toksvig.