While the grown-ups attended serious sessions in pursuit of literary discourse and culture, the young attendees of this year’s Hay Festival were seen at the Imagination Tent, where detailed programmes were scheduled especially for children and teenagers.
On the second day of the three-day long event, the programme marking the start of children’s events kicked off with an interactive puppet show and storytelling session, which was followed by poetry recitations, featuring the works of Shukumar Ray and Rabindranath Tagore. Children between the ages of six to 12 were in attendance and filled the tent with their cries of delight and laughter.
On the concluding day of the festival, there were slots in the morning for youngsters, but this time aimed at a slightly higher age group, 11-18 year olds. The event of note was “Upcoming Misfits” session where a discussion about comics and graphic stories by Nuhash Humayun drew large crowds. The young creator of the comic strip “#esh”, and Samir Rahman, whose studio Mighty Punch has released two comic books “Shabash” and “Legend of Zooey” this year entertaining the audience.
The children’s programme wrapped up with a special session with Zafar Iqbal on how to “Write a Story”.
In the stalls there were books, magazines and varied content especially for young readers, which showed that the literary event took a comprehensive approach towards including the young book lovers as well as adults.
