UK – Hawthorn has, for the fourth year running, been appointed by the organisers of the Hay Festival to deliver the technical production for its 28th arts, literary and science festival. The festival is being held at its traditional home, off Langdon Road, Hay-on-Wye in Wales.

Hawthorn’s remit includes the provision of lighting, sound, audio-visual, staging, draping and power distribution over the four hectare site. The company will fit out eight performance spaces, a bookshop, cafes, restaurants, administration and artist areas. The performance spaces will host film and television stars, poets and writers in the day, and music performances at night. Hawthorn will also provide architectural night-lighting throughout the festival site. Martin Hawthorn, managing director at Hawthorn and a regular attendee at the festival comments: “It’s wonderful to be involved once again with the Hay Festival, a personal highlight of the year.”

The main theatre space is utilising their D&B V-series line array speakers, including the V-series cardioid subs. A number of mixing desks are deployed across the site, featuring Digico SD8 and SD9 plus Yamaha QL desks. Hawthorn’s created a co-ordinated radio mic frequency allocation plan across the site for their 80 channels of Sennheiser 2000 series radio microphones.
Whilst the lighting specification isn’t complex, the multiple spaces, catering areas and shops results in seven articulated lorries of kit, including two 800Ampand five 400Amp primary distribution boards along with many kilometres of cable.

The international festival attracted over a quarter of a million attendees in 2014. This year’s festival will run from 21st to 31st May 2015. The festival programme will feature film and television stars, including Jude Law, Stephen Fry and Griff Rhys Jones will be joined by other celebrities including Marci Pierre White and best-selling author Deborah Moggach. Gigs from Unthanks, Texas, Frank Turner and actress Charlotte Rampling are included in the musical line up. Violinist Nigel Kennedy will perform the closing concert of 2015 Hay Festival on the 31st May.
www.hawthorns.uk.com