Lloyd’s Register Foundation at Hay Festival 2023

Hay Festival, the world’s leading festival of ideas, is back for another year, bringing readers and writers together in sustainable events, to share and inspire the latest thinking in the arts and sciences.  

This year’s programme launches the best new fiction and non-fiction, while offering insights and debate around leading global challenges. Award-winning writers, policymakers, scientists, historians, and pioneers will take part from around the world, offering innovative thinking and bold ideas.  

Speaking on the theme for 2023 ‘11 days of different’, Hay festival CEO Julie Finch says it will be “a space where great minds won’t always think alike, and where imaginations are free to roam.” Notable attendees include The Sunday Times bestselling author Richard Osman, musician Stormzy, and Turner Prize winner Tracey Emin.

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Lloyd’s Register Foundation at Hay Festival 2023 

See below for full details:  

The Big Seaweed Show - buy tickets

Vincent Doumeizel and special guests - Monday 29 May 2023, 2.30pm 

Venue: Wye Stage  

• Seaweed may well be the greatest untapped resource on the planet. It has a wide variety of applications, from supporting biodiversity in marine ecosystems, climate change mitigation, and contributing to job creation and poverty alleviation. It has the potential to replace plastic and fertilizers, boost medical innovations, and support economies in our fragile coastal communities. It also has a significant role to play in addressing global food security. 

• Vincent Doumeizel, Director of the Food Programme at Lloyd’s Register Foundation and Senior Advisor for United Nations Global Compact is joined by world-leading seaweed specialists for an interactive session at this year’s Hay Festival. ‘The Big Seaweed Show’ will showcase practical applications of seaweed, from food to clothing to plastic alternatives, and offer a deeper insight into the potential it has to change the world.

Elements of a Catastrophe - buy tickets

Emily So – Thursday 1 June 2023, 2:30 pm  

Venue: Wye Stage 

• On February 6th, 2023, a 7.8 Magnitude earthquake struck Southern Turkey, near the Syrian border. More than 50,000 people lost their lives and 14 million affected in the region, as infrastructure and buildings failed under extreme conditions.   

• Emily So, Professor of Architectural Engineering at Cambridge University, shares her experience working with researchers and scientists on the front line of natural disaster. As an expert in architectural engineering and the Director of the Cambridge University Centre for Risk in the Built Environment (CURBE) – a group looking into the origins, ns, consequences, and mitigation of natural and manmade risk around the world – she has been able to provide unique insight into how we can mitigate the devastating impact of such events.  

Sinews of War and Trade - buy tickets

Laleh Khalili - Saturday 27 May 2023, 1pm 

Venue: Wales Stage  

• Maritime trade has shaped the world we live in today. From whaling in the 19th century to European colonisation and beyond, the maritime economy has driven forms of exchange, social relations, the search for oil and the formation of new trade routes, policies, and maritime law. With 90% of global trade now carried across the oceans, it continues to play a critical role today. 

• Laleh Khalili, author of Sinews of war and trade: Shipping and Capitalism in the Arabian Peninsula and Horatio Clare, and author of Down to the Sea in Ships will discuss the largely invisible world of shipping, the role maritime has played in shaping the world as it is today, and the dangers and difficulties faced by seafarers. 

How safe do you feel? - buy tickets

Sarah Cumbers- Friday 2 June 2023, 1pm 

Venue: Wye Stage  

• At this year’s Hay Festival, Dr Sarah Cumbers, our Director of Evidence and Insight, takes attendees on a journey through the World Risk Poll, a ground-breaking global study, based on over 125,000 interviews with people in 121 countries. It explores how the world thinks and feels about threats to their personal safety – with major implications for how we keep people safe.