Spear's Wealth Management Survey

How the Light Gets In

26 May-5 June
Hay, Wales
Website

In today’s TV-loving, public library-starved Britain, the success of How the Light Gets In, Hay-on-Wye’s annual music and philosophy festival (26 May-5 June), is a rare triumph for the written word and an offbeat celebration of questions that can’t be answered by Wikipedia. For the second year running, Spear’s is a media partner for How the Light Gets In, a ten-day event best thought of as the bookworm’s Glastonbury or the armchair philosopher’s Wireless.

This year, thousands of visitors will head to Hay-on-Wye, a town with a population of around two thousand but with thirty second-hand bookshops, for ten days of rigorous debate, incisive and provocative solo talks, film screenings, live performance and parties. The theme of the event is ‘New Gods: Icons and ideas in a changed world’ and leading writers, academics and commentators will convene at Hay to ask: are the great narratives that have built and sustained the West under threat? And, if so, what are the new gods that will replace them?

Produced by the Institute of Art and Ideas and held annually in Hay-on-Wye in association with The Independent, HTLGI brings together philosophers, writers, musicians, politicians, artists and commentators for ten days of rigorous debate, incisive solo talks, film screenings, live performance, and parties.

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Spear's will be sponsoring a talk

The Global Aristocracy
Laurie Penny, Phillip Blond, William Cash, Petronella Wyatt. Felicity Evans chairs.

Across the globe the super-rich form a new global aristocracy. Should there be limits to their political and cultural power? Does wealth serve the greater good, or are we on a slippery slope to an age of oligarchy?
 
New Statesman columnist Laurie Penny, Cameron confidante Phillip Blond, Mail On Sunday columnist Petronella Wyatt and Spear's editor William Cash challenge the new world order.

Saturday 28 May 2011
2:30pm
Venue: International Tent

Book tickets for the Global Aristocracy here

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Our fast-paced society rarely grants time for introspection, but Hay-on-Wye offers space for (possibly overdue) self-examination. ‘What are we worth?’ William Cash will ask Oscar-winning screenwriter William Nicholson on 3 June. Cash will speak to Nicholson about his new play Crash, and what he has learned about the meaning of self-worth in today’s money-driven society.

Friday 3 June 2011
5:00pm
Venue: Talk Tent

Book tickets for What are we worth? here

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In Mazes of the Mind, ‘one of the world’s most powerful scientists’ (The Observer) Colin Blakemore joins philosopher of neuroscience and bioethics Catherine Malabou, psychiatrist and author of The Master and His Emissary Iain McGilchrist and ‘the most cerebral writer in the industry’ (The Independent) Bryan Appleyard, to ask how far neuroscience can really take us.

With Middle Eastern revolution dominating the headlines, the world’s most popular blogger Cory Doctorow, author of The Net Delusion Evegeny Morozov, and philosopher and revolutionary Alex Callinicos ask in Return of Revolution whether technology has the power to set the world on fire, while in The End of Ideas, columnist Polly Toynbee, eminent philosopher Peter Hacker, postmodernist Christopher Hamilton and New Statesman culture editor Jonathan Derbyshire argue over the death of the intellectual.

Elsewhere, band of the moment The Correspondents bring their unique brand of swing-hop to Hay. Clad in spandex and spats, the super cool cats merge house and hip-hop with classic 1920s and 30s jazz swing. The ‘excellently off-the-wall’ duo (The Independent) have shared stages with the likes of Basement Jaxx, Florence & The Machine and Bat for Lashes and are releasing an EP this spring.
 
For media accreditation, images and interview requests for IAI events, contact Bianca Brigitte Bonomi
E: bianca.bonomi@artandideas.org / T: +44 20 7837 3000 


Tickets and further information available here