Word-Lovers Come out of Hiding for a Shocking Spectator Sport Down the Bay; Box Office Arts & Entertainment for Almost a Decade, a Festival in Cardiff Bay Has Been Celebrating literature.Peter Finch Reveals Why BayLit Is Still as Relevant Today - and Picks Some Highlights from the 2008 Programme

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Byline: Peter Finch

WHY light up the Bay? In 1999 when Academi (the National Literary Promotion Agency for Wales) first came up with the idea of a long-weekend literature festival, Cardiffians were rarely in the habit of venturing further south than the main rail link.

The Bay was another country.

And a recently renamed one at that.

Cardiff was two cities: the municipal capital standing in quiet Portland stone grandeur around Cathays Park; and then the buzzing Bay, new centre of the urban Welsh universe, full of cafes, bars, restaurants, and light. BayLit would knit the two places together.

A weekend of Llen y Lli, literature of the …