Marches.TV reports from the Hay Literary Festival; meets some festival-goers on a Sandy Toksvig-induced high and Rachel from local firm Wiggly Wigglers.

In this report from The Hay Literary Festival we enjoy the atmosphere around Hay-on-Wye in Powys and talk to Clare Keil, local designer of the American Tulipwodd seating area, the Wave and Splash, on the Festival Site.

This year’s Ludlow Food Festival was the 15th and the most popular, as record numbers made their pilgrimage to Foodie Heaven.

Summer finally arrived in the Marches and the sun shone on three days of demonstrations, talks, trails and tasting, of course. 21,000 people from near and far sampled the quality and variety of food and drink lovingly created by Marches producers.

Visitors could sample and vote for their favourite sausage, bread or ale, try out the UKs first potato vodka or go nuts for smoked, well, nuts.

Marches.TV was there to capture the buzz, talk to demonstrators, producers, organisers and visitors and perhaps sample some of the fine fayre for ourselves.

Marches.TV dropped in on the launch of the first Hay-on-Wye British Film Festival where patron Francine Stock kindly took the mic to interview Directors Mike Hodges (Get Carter, Flash Gordon, Croupier), Colin Thomas (Border Crossing: The Story of Raymond Williams) and Havana Marking (Afghan Star). She asked them about the making of their films and why a Film Festival dedicated to British Film is so unusual.

Marches.TV went along to the beer festival at Kilvert's in Hay-on-Wye only to walk in on insurrection and execution.

In fact the newly created Commonwealth of Hay had previously tried Richard Booth, the self-appointed King and founder of the Book Town movement, and found him guilty of, well, not defending himself properly apparently. His sentence, a lenient death!

We managed to corner the protagonists and speak to the new First Minister, Paul Harris, the Lord High Executioner, a singing monk and Nick Jones, Commanding Officer of the Parliamentarian paramilitaries, Colonel John Birch's Regiment.

Marches.TV joined members of CAMRA and fellow beer-lovers for the first Green Hop Beer Festival at Kilvert's in Hay-on-Wye

Green Hop beer is a burnished gold colour with a quite bitter but hoppy flavour. The freshly picked hops are added to the brew only hours after having been picked to guarantee their freshness and the maximum impact on the taste of the beer.

We spoke to Ed Davies, proprietor of Kilvert's about the beer, the festival and ...the ferrets!

Within 18 months of opening, La Bécasse gained its first Michelin Star. Now voted into the 100 Top Restuarants in the UK, Marches.TV caught up with Head Chef, Will Holland at The Ludlow Food Festival in Shropshire. We asked him why cooking with local food is so important, what's on the menu and more about La Bécasse.

Following the beheading of King Richard of Hay by the newly established Commonwealth of Hay, local Head Teacher, Martyn Jenkins, used the 4th Plinth in Trafalgar Square to read a proclamation from the Commonwealth and display the head to a wondering world.

The 4th Plinth

One & Other was a live artwork by sculptor Antony Gormley, which took place over 100 days during the summer of 2009. Streamed live on SkyArts, the Plinth became a surprise web hit and was watched by millions around the world.

No fewer than 2,400 people from the Shetland Islands to Penzance occupied the plinth for sixty minutes each, picked at random from nearly 35,000 who applied.

King Richard's Head Displayed

Martyn Jenkins, from Talgarth near Hay-on-Wye, was originally going to use his slot to paint, as a statement against the nearby National Gallery and its refusal to show his work unless he had painted it before 1907, was famous and dead! Instead, as the rain came down, he spent the hour talking about the wonderful area and people around Hay, Talgarth and Brecon.

Halfway through his monologue he read a statement from the newly formed Commonwealth of Hay, declaring Hay-on-Wye a Top Gear Presenter-free zone for 355 days of the year and the first and best Town of Books, before removing from a box the separated head (in effigy) of Richard Booth, the deposed King, and displaying it to the world (having checked no children were watching)!

Watch the video report of the execution of King Richard.

Read full story of the execution and creation of the Commonwealth of Hay

Dirty Bandages follows the story of Danny, whose passion for rugby is only supplanted by one thing, his passion for cars. The short film was made through The Rural Media Company and the production involved a group of 14-16 year olds in everything from devising the script to camera work and acting. It premiered at The Guardian Hay Festival in May 2008.

The group devised the script with Director Rachel Lambert and Rhayader based award-winning screenwriter Peter Cox.

"The idea for the project has come directly from the young people, all of the group are drawn to the freedom that having access to a car brings them. They realise that hanging out in local car parks makes them appear to be a nuisance, but really their life is ruled by their ability to get about, particularly in a rural area like Hay. The car not only takes them places, it becomes their portable living room."

The group meet under the banner of Inform Ed, a programme co-ordinated by Powys Youth Service staff, which focuses on the Informal Education model of experiential learning. The film shoot saw all the young people take production roles, including camera, sound and acting, alongside experienced industry professionals, who have been training and mentoring the group for the last three months

Gareth Wheatley has produced a highly entertaining, humorous and informative account of ten bus journeys backwards and forwards across the Welsh/English border country where he, with a sharp eye for detail, records the conversations he has had with the residents of both countries.

In this interview he talks about why he wrote the book and whether or not he discovered the human equivalent of the border carrot