Hay Festival Creative Residency Project
In July 2025, a pilot Hay Festival Creative Residency in Hereford's St Thomas Cantilupe Church of England Primary School saw five artists – poet and Children’s Laureate Wales Alex Wharton, theatre maker Toni Cook, composer Aaron Diaz, choreographer Sonia Sabri MBE and artist Sarah Morton – work with the pupils to create a community performance based on their stories.
This project was the culmination of a partnership that began in 2023 as part of the ACE funded Early Years project. St Thomas Cantilupe’s two hundred pupils all participated in a collaborative week-long workshop that celebrated the 21 languages spoken.
The school hosted its very own Hay Festival, called ‘A World of Difference’ over a one-week period. Artists in the field of dance, drama, poetry, dance and music worked intensively with pupils from Year 1 to Year 6 at the school to create, devise, build and perform their own Festival. At the end of the week, a multi-media promenade performance was held for family, friends and the wider community, supported by the Hay Festival team.
In addition, families from St Thomas Cantilupe School attended a ‘family day’ at Hay Festival Hay-on-Wye during the half-term holiday, with transport, tickets to workshops and events and food provided for the visit.
Watch our creative residency film...
