Hereford Military History Festival - Interview with Christian Dangerfield
Ahead of Hereford Military History Festival we asked Festival Director Christian Dangerfield some questions.
Please introduce yourself and Hereford Military History Festival.
My name is Christian Dangerfield. I spent 25 years in the financial sector in London and Asia and I have been involved in various economic regeneration and business development projects in Herefordshire and the Welsh Marches since 2015. I founded the Hereford Military History Festival in 2024 with Lyndy Cooke, who was the Managing Director of the Hay Literary Festival for 20 years.
The festival is taking place on the weekend of 25th-27th September. We are the only annual literary festival in Britain which focuses exclusively on all aspects of global military history and we are aiming to attract local, national and global audiences. Thanks to Lyndy’s experience and reputation at Hay, we have been able to attract some of the world’s best-known military historians, speakers, thinkers and strategists, including Anthony Beevor, Ben MacIntyre, Andrew Roberts, Nicholas Soames, Tim Bouverie and Dominic Cummings.
Why is Hereford at the heart of a military history festival?
The word Hereford is Anglo-Saxon for “army ford”. In the winter of 60 AD, Roman General Gaius Suetonius Paulinus led a column of legionaries out of their camp at Credenhill, crossed the River Wye and marched west to put down a rebellion of Welsh druids in Anglesey. Hereford has been a garrison town ever since and the garrison in question is still at Credenhill, now the physical and spiritual home of the SAS Regiment.
Hereford and the wider county of Herefordshire have played an extraordinary role in Britain’s military history - from the Romans, Mercian King Offa, and the Norman Marcher Lords, who ruled the borderlands for 400 years, through to the Canary Girls and, more recently, the cluster of ground-breaking defence and security businesses in the county.
Around 25% of Herefordshire’s population has a connection to the armed forces, Military history is in our DNA, so creating Britain’s first military history festival in Hereford was a no-brainer.
Which events are you looking forward to over the weekend?
We are hosting 60 different events, discussions, debates and talks this year, covering everything for Alexander the Great and Ancient Greece and Sparta through to the wars in Ukraine and Iran today, so there is a lot to choose from.
Our Headline Event is a ground-breaking panel discussion in Hereford Cathedral on the Past, Present and Future of the SAS, chaired by Alison Pearson of the Telegraph and including four of the regiment’s most distinguished veterans.
I am also looking forward to Colin Bell’s talk on his experiences as a Mosquito pilot, flying more than 50 missions over Germany in WW2, as part of the legendary 608 ‘Pathfinder’ Squadron. And I am also very much looking forward to hearing Andrew Roberts talking about his new book on Napoleon and his Marshals.
The festival includes a Military History Fair on Castle Green in the middle of Hereford - the site of the first Norman castle built after the Conquest in 1066 - which features a Spitfire, more than 20 historic military vehicles and re-enactors covering everything for the Vikings through to the the WW2 German army.
Where will the events be taking place?
The festival is taking place in six venues in the heart of Hereford’s medieval city - the Cathedral, St. Peter’s Church, the ballroom at the Green Dragon Hotel (the oldest hotel in Britain), College Hall and the Bishop’s Palace.
What else does Hereford have to offer whilst visiting the city for the festival?
Farming and agriculture have been a central part of Herefordshire’s economy and identity for thousands of years and we are famous the world over for our beef and our cider. The festival is supporting more than 30 fantastic independent food and drink hospitality businesses in the centre of the city.
To book your tickets to the festival please visit Hereford Military History Festival
