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The Hay Festival has reported footfall up 6% on 2023 with ticket sales up 8%, after a tumultuous 2024 that saw the charity drop its main sponsor Baillie Gifford and a number of authors and artists pull out. The positive attendance come as debate continues over the actions of campaign collective Fossil Free Books, which had called for the dropping of the asset manager.
Late last week a range of Scottish writers signed an open letter hitting out at the campaign group, after the Edinburgh International Book Festival also ended its 20-year funding partnership with Baillie Gifford. It described boycotts that threaten writers and festivals as "retrograde".
Hay Festival Global c.e.o. Julie Finch said: “At a time of intense polarity, the past 11 days have showed us all how essential festivals are in bringing people together. On stage and off, we have crossed borders to navigate some of the biggest issues of our times with nuance and expertise. Our increased footfall shows that demand for these spaces has never been higher and we thank all our artists, partners, sponsors, members, patrons and benefactors for making it happen."
The Financial Times reported that the asset manager was now in talks with seven other UK literary festivals that it supports to work out whether it is viable to continue their relationships. “My suspicion is that they’ll withdraw from the sector because the game’s not worth the candle,” said one person involved in talks to the newspaper. "We’re all worried about this for ourselves and sad for our colleagues at Edinburgh and Hay,” said Adrian Turpin, director of Wigtown Book Festival, which is sponsored by Baillie Gifford in south-west Scotland. “The danger is that we’ll see a huge flood of money out of the arts from reasonable and ethical companies because the purity test has been set so high. It’s hard to see a situation where any multinational company is able to justify being pure enough to give money," he added.
A number of commentators have rounded on Fossil Free Books in the weekend press, including the journalist Alex Massie, who wrote in the Sunday Times: "It is a shameful capitulation to scolds and nincompoops whose arguments — to accord them a status they scarcely warrant — collapse after just a few seconds of scrutiny." And she wondered if they would now come after Waterstones’ parent Elliott Advisors or Amazon. "Doubtless the Edinburgh Book Festival will continue but it will be a smaller affair in the future than it has been in the past. What company could both wish to sponsor such an event and be acceptable to these harpies?"
The open letter signed by writers such as Val McDermid, Liz Lochead, Jackie Kay, Chris Brookmyre, Andrew O’Hagan and Alexander McCall Smith is less combative, but calls on "writers and book workers to engage in dialogue to find ethically acceptable solutions whereby our festivals are not silenced". It stated: "Without the support of EIBF and other book festivals, and without the spaces provided by theatres and other cultural venues, our voices will merely grow quieter, and our young and emerging writers may never be heard at all."
It added: "We believe that boycotts which threaten such platforms, and which pressure other writers to comply, are deeply retrograde."
In the Guardian, the author Max Porter defended FFB as "calm, informed and courteous", saying: “People act as if FFB are trying to kill book festivals, instead of working to imagine a healthier future for them. The array of bad-faith arguments, defeatism, defensiveness and rusty culture war formulations thrown at FFB online has been alarming."
However, other writers, including the environmental writer Mark Lynas has suggested that authors had been pressured into cancelling events at the Hay Festival, a view widely shared at Hay, where organisers and writers spoke privately about fears over disrupted events, with a number of speakers uncertain over their attendance in the run-up to the festival. Jenny Niven, who recently took over as chief executive of the Edinburgh International Book Festival, said last week that the "pressure on our team has simply become intolerable".
Fossil Free Books, a collective of workers in the books industry has campaigned for Baillie Gifford to divest from companies that profit from fossil fuels and Israel, and insists that its "engagement with authors has always been friendly and inclusive, never coercive". But the Guardian reports that as many as 30 artists told Hay they would pull out after receiving an email from FFB saying that there would be pro-Palestinian protesters at the event. "These groups as a whole won’t be able to come into your events without buying tickets, but they might have associates or friends attending Hay, who they can make aware to give support to you,” the email said. Though interpreted as a threat by some, FFB denied it was meant that way.
The Guardian reported that on Monday, Baillie Gifford will start meeting leaders of festivals to discuss the future of the firm’s sponsorship. Toby Mundy, a leading literary agent and director of the Baillie Gifford Prize for non-fiction, said: “We’re proud of our association with Baillie Gifford, who have … contributed enormously to a free and open and plural literary culture in the UK. Our board is more than satisfied that Baillie Gifford is a force for good and is contributing positively to the post-carbon transition."
Hay said that nearly 20,000 free tickets were issued to schools (primary and secondary) taking part in the programme in person, while more than 8,500 pupils took part digitally. Finch added: "As we look ahead to another 12 months of Hay Festival Global activities around the world, we step forward with renewed hope and energy for the future.”
Conversations this year celebrated the winners of the Swansea University Dylan Thomas Prize and International Booker Prize; plus the shortlists of the Wales Book of the Year 2024 and Women’s Prizes for Fiction and Non-Fiction. Meanwhile, The Bookseller presented The Nibbies Salon, as novelist Katherine Rundell and her team shared insights from the publishing journey, and a new Climate Fiction Prize was launched live on stage.
There was also a collaboration with Ukraine’s biggest book festival, Lviv BookForum, with the support of the Open Society Foundations, presenting two co-curated events throughout the festival to promote Ukrainian storytelling and explored the state of Ukraine today. Three journalists covering the Israel-Palestinian war spoke about their work in the Gaza Strip.