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Irish singer and songwriter Bob Geldof performs during his concert at the first Hay Festival held in Hungary in Budapest on May 4, 2012.Balazs Mohai/The Associated Press

Forgive the pun, but Luminato, Toronto's festival of the arts and creativity, is getting set for a second round of hay fever. That, of course, should be Hay fever, as in Hay-on-Wye, the tiny perfect town in the Black Mountains of Wales which, since 1988, has hosted one of the world's greatest (and quirkiest) literary and arts festivals.

Luminato worked with the Hay – which starts its 10-day run each year in late May – for the first time last June, mounting a showcase of young Arab authors titled Beirut39. That also happened to be the name of both an anthology of new Arab writing published under the Hay's auspices (39 writers under the age of 39) and a festival organized in Lebanon in April, 2010, by Hay.

The Toronto experience proved such a success that Luminato and Hay are at it again, this time focusing on Latin America. Tuesday evening at TIFF Bell Lightbox, three acclaimed young writers – Bolivian-born Rodrigo Hasbun, Mexico's Valeria Luiselli and Peruvian Santiago Roncagliolo – will do brief readings, in English, from their work, followed by an on-stage coversation moderated by Carol Off, host of CBC Radio's As It Happens.

Hay now runs or helps run 15 offshoot events on five continents. The first, Hay Festival Cartagena, started in that Colombian coastal city in 2006 to accommodate Gabriel Garcia Marquez after the Nobel Prize-winner declined "to come to the anglophone, chilly northern hemisphere" for Hay Festival Wales.

Toronto thus far is the only North American locale for a Hay spinoff. ("I like the way Luminato is diverse and mixed and multiplex," Hay co-founder Peter Florence said recently.) The relationship started basically with a cold call last year from Luminato literary curator Devyani Saltzman to Hay organizer Cristina Fuentes, asking if the Toronto festival could present a variation of Beirut39. This year's Latin American focus arose from Saltzman travelling in January for Hay Cartagena 2012, where "I really enjoyed the breadth and the depth of the programming."

With Hay now orchestrating or helping festivals in Nairobi, Istanbul, Kerala, Budapest and elsewhere, you might think such franchising could eventually water down the Hay "brand." It's not a worry, though, for Peter Florence, who claims he's "pitched a new location at least once a week."

"All the festivals have their own identities and agendas, and Hay Festival means different things in different communities," he said in an e-mail interview. "The world is vast and there are amazing adventures to be had in many, many thrilling cultures. … Everything we learn abroad is fed back into all the other festivals."

The Hay also continues to "prospect" for new projects on its own, the one caution being "we wouldn't run [anything] we didn't love." Working with Luminato, for instance, is "like being a guest DJ."

Florence noted that while Hay has spent "a decade looking at possible locations and partners in the United States and scoping them out," nothing so far has "shouted out to us." Canada, however, may become home to another Hay event: The Canadian Museum for Human Rights is scheduled to open in Winnipeg in 2014, and Florence reports discussions are underway for running a human rights-themed festival at that time.

Hay Wales, which wrapped its 25th anniversary edition Sunday, hosts more than 700 events each year and draws at least 200,000 visitors – a challenge, Florence admits, in "balancing intimacy with a viable scale of attendance." Would Luminato like to see an expanded Hay presence at future festivals? Saltzman said she's "completely open" to the idea, but "it really depends on the themes Luminato is focusing on in that particular year and if it makes sense for the program."

Right now, she likes the way Hay's global network gives Luminato the opportunity to highlight "new voices from regions we don't normally hear from in Toronto."

Luminato's Hay Festival event starts at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, at Toronto's TIFF Bell Lightbox (www.luminato.com).

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