Ted Hodgkinson To Leave Southbank Centre & Join Hay Festival As Creative Director

Ted Hodgkinson, the Southbank Centre’s longtime director of literature and spoken word, is leaving the London institution to join Hay Festival in the newly created role of creative director. 

Hodgkinson will officially join the Hay Festival team in the autumn. In the new role, Hodgkinson will be responsible for leading the event’s artistic and creative strategy and public programming. 

He joins Hay’s executive team, led by Chief Executive Julie Finch. The wider executive team also includes International Director and co-Deputy CEO, Cristina Fuentes La Roche; Executive Producer and co-Deputy CEO, Adrian Lambert; Director of Communications and External Affairs, Christopher Bone; Finance Director Amanda Cartwright; Production Director Georgie Cooke; and Commercial Director Penny Compton. 

“We’re delighted to welcome Ted Hodgkinson to Hay Festival Global as our new Creative Director,” Finch said in a statement. “Ted joins us at a pivotal moment, as we build towards our 40th anniversary in 2027 and respond to growing demand for Hay Festival platforms in the UK and around the world.” 

Discussing his new role, Hodgkinson said he aims to build on the event’s “exceptionally strong foundations while being bold and ambitious in reimagining the programme for audiences in Hay-on-Wye and around the world, fired by the belief that its brightest years are still ahead.”

Across his decades-long tenure at the Southbank, Hodgkinson programmed more than 3,000 events, including the now-buzzy London Literature Festival, and expanded the Southbank’s cultural relevance with ambitious programming that mixed the institution’s classical literature programming with contemporary flourishes, like the partnership with Dua Lipa’s Service95 Book Club.

He is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA). He also serves as a trustee of English PEN, New Writing North and The Arts Foundation.