The Hinterland festival began life as the Hay/Kells Festival in 2013, in collaboration with the Hay (Wales) Literary Festival. In 2017 it evolved into Hinterland and has now run numerous events under this name. Since 2013 guests have included all the leading Irish fiction writers (Colm Tóibín, Sebastian Barry, Roddy Doyle, Anne Enright, Joseph O’Connor, John Boyne, Liz Nugent) and a number of major UK writers and artists (Germaine Greer, Jung Chang, Jeremy Paxman, Brian Eno, Ben Okri, Hanif Kureishi, Jeannette Winterson, Louis de Bernières).

Since 2013 it has secured funding for the festival from, among others, The Leader Fund, Creative Ireland, Meath County Council, the Department of Foreign Affairs Reconciliation Fund, Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht (2015), the Community Employment Scheme, as well as local sponsorship sources.

Hinterland Festival 2021 will take place in September (instead of the usual June dates). This is in the hope that more elements will be in-person events. The ever resourceful committee have worked with venues and artists, reimagined and readapted their programme and will present an exciting blend of live audience and live stream events from a range of national and international artists. 

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Please note that the details of events listed above are provided by the relevant Local Authorities.