The Hinterland festival began life as the Hay/Kells Festival in 2013, in collaboration with the Hay (Wales) Literary Festival. In 2017 it evolved into Hinterland and has now run numerous events under this name. Since 2013  guests have included all the leading Irish fiction writers (Colm Tóibín, Sebastian Barry, Roddy Doyle, Anne Enright, Joseph O’Connor, John Boyne, Liz Nugent) and a number of major UK writers and artists (Germaine Greer, Jung Chang, Jeremy Paxman, Brian Eno, Ben Okri, Hanif Kureishi, Jeannette Winterson, Louis de Bernières).

Since 2013 it has secured funding for the festival from, among others, The Leader Fund, Creative Ireland, Meath County Council, the Department of Foreign Affairs Reconciliation Fund, Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht (2015), the Community Employment Scheme, as well as local sponsorship sources.

In addition to the annual Hinterland Festival, which takes place over the last weekend in June each year, it organized  the national Gallipoli100 commemorative event in 2015 (funded by the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, and box office revenue). In December 2018 it launched a two-day sports writing festival, Tailteann, with the assistance of Creative Ireland.

Please note that the details of events listed above are provided by the relevant Local Authorities.