AFS2022 Speakers

Peter Florence

Co-Director, the European Festivals Forest, Regeneration Consultant, Founder Hay Festivals

Festivals imagine the world we live in and explore the society that we want to create. We curate and celebrate the artistic imagination that fires change.


Peter Florence founded the Hay Festival in 1988 and has since established and consulted for 18 festivals around the world from Brazil to Bangladesh and in Europe from Belfast to Budapest. He is a Trustee of the Baillie Gifford Prize and the National Library of Wales. He is a jury member of EFFE, and a Friend of Oxfam. He was awarded a CBE for services to Literature and Charity, and is a "Colombiano de Corazon”. He was educated at Cambridge and the Sorbonne. He lectures on creative industries and cultural regeneration.

Peter Florence