Hay Festival 2020: Margaret Atwood, Benedict Cumberbatch and Helena Bonham Carter on virtual lineup

Organisers have curated a full lineup as the event switches to digital during the coronavirus lockdown

(Getty Images for Tory Burch Foun)

Hay Festival has announced its lineup for a virtual edition of the event, which takes place this month.

Among the names on this year’s billing are Margaret Atwood, Helena Bonham Carter, Hilary Mantel, Ali Smith and Benedict Cumberbatch.

The festival, which is usually held in Powys, Wales, will be broadcast for free between 18 and 31 May after the live event was cancelled during the UK-wide lockdown.

Director Peter Florence said: “We'll be zinging the programme as if from a green field in Wales.”

In a piece for The Guardian about the lineup, Mr Florence added: “I doubt we could ever have assembled the cast who’ll launch our Wordsworth 250 celebrations in real life. Simon Armitage, Margaret Atwood, Benedict Cumberbatch, Tom Hollander, Helen McCrory, Jonathan Pryce, Vanessa Redgrave are a dream team, reading around Shahidha Bari’s jewel-like nano-lectures.

“Nobel economists Esther Duflo and Paul Krugman can beam in this year as never before, and if we’re in need of a little less conversation of an evening, Royal Ballet superstar Fernando Montaño will be dancing the dying swan for us direct from his studio in LA, Helena Bonham Carter joins Allie Esiri’s Shakespeare show, Inua Ellams updates his magical Evening with an Immigrant for the time of coronavirus, Stephen Fry and Natalie Haynes tell different sides of the story from Troy, and guitarist David Gilmour will be playing a Von Trapped family concert to celebrate Polly Samson’s beautiful novel about Leonard Cohen’s Greek summer A Theatre for Dreamers.”

The festival will address Covid-19 by also including speakers such as health expert Devi Sridhar, who appeared at the event two years ago discussing the likelihood of a pandemic.

Children’s laureate and author Cressida Cowell will feature among a number of broadcasts for school children held from 18 to 22 May.

More information is available on the Hay Festival website.