An acclaimed literature festival will open a new chapter here in Abu Dhabi.
Hay Festival – the annual event first launched in 1987 in Wales – has announced the staging of Hay Festival Abu Dhabi from 24th to 27th February 2020.
The four-day festival will be hosted at Manarat Al Saadiyat and will offer a wide-ranging programme centring on literature and the written word.
Internationally acclaimed authors and thinkers including Nobel Laureates Shirin Ebadi and Ahmed Galai, Lebanese novelist Hoda Barakat, winner of the 2019 International Prize for Arabic Fiction, and writers Adonis, Jokha Alharthi, Muhammed Hasan Alwan, Tishani Doshi, and more.
The event will likewise gather the best of contemporary international and Arab literature including poets from the UAE’s bustling spoken word and slam poetry.
Discussions will be delivered in Arabic, English and other languages.
What’s more, activities for children of all age groups and families will also be in the agenda, collaborating with local schools to come up with educational programmes during school hours.
Authors and thinkers will visit students and young people in local universities to help inspire future writers and creative in the region and beyond.
“We return to the Middle East to ask the best writers and thinkers from the Arab world and further afield to share ideas and stories,” Cristina Fuentes La Roche, Hay Festival International director.
“Conversations on stage are fundamental, often electrifying. They matter even more when they facilitate further conversations in the audience, at schools, back home, at university, or in the street.
“We want everyone to speak, laugh and listen to one another with open minds at the festival and beyond.”
About Hay Festival
Since 1987, Hay Festival has staged 125 festivals in different parts of the globe.
The festival is known for inviting writers and thinkers from different cultures and languages to share ideas and knowledge.
Each Festival is firmly rooted in the respective local communities and literary traditions, while sharing the same culture of generosity and celebration that permeates all editions of the festival and everything it does.
Tickets to Hay Festival Abu Dhabi will be available in November.
For more information, visit: hayfestival.org/abu-dhabi
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