Hay Festival 2023

Performers and directors from two ground-breaking acclaimed productions, Peaceophobia and Waswasa – which explore faith, systemic racism and the lived experience of young Muslim men in Bradford and Birmingham – discuss why the arts are so secular and if audiences are scared of faith, and why. This will be a unique script reading performance accompanied by film and projection, and followed by a post-show conversation.

Peaceophobia is on a current UK tour, co-produced by Fuel Theatre and Common Wealth, written by Zia Ahmed. Waswasa is a show by Mohammed Ali MBE, Soul City Arts and originally commissioned by B2022 Festival.

James Hodkinson is Professor of Modern Languages and plays a leading role in the Institute of Public Engagement at Warwick University. He specialises in forging links between academic research and the arts sector.

The womb is the most miraculous organ in the body, yet most of us know almost nothing about it. Midwife and author Leah Hazard goes on a journey to explore the rich past, complex present and dynamic future of the uterus, speaking to the Californian doctor who believes women deserve a period-free life and walking in the footsteps of the Scottish woman whose Caesarean section changed childbirth forever. With warmth and wisdom, Hazard talks to comedian Rachel Parris about her book Womb, an extraordinary exploration of a woefully under-researched and misunderstood organ.

​Then Before is a sound installation devised by sound artist Wajid Yaseen. Through the work, Yaseen presents poems in a multi-speaker, immersive listening installation, realised and activated by narration, music, found-sound, foley and spatialisation – a form of ‘sound or sonic poetry’.

The installation uses a selection of poems by writers Alice Kemp (a poet informed by states of dream, disturbance, and subtle trance), Jack Underwood (curator of the Faber Poetry Podcast and author of Happiness, A Year in the New Life), and Shamshad Khan (poet and resilience coach, author of Megalomaniac).

Then Before is part of Modus Arts’ Text-Sound-Art programme which is a platform for exploring how poets and sound artists can work together to extend poetry into soundscape, and sound into wordscapes to create new meaning and enhance both disciplines

Modus Arts have performed and installed at the Arnolfini Bristol, ICA Gallery, Queen Elizabeth Hall, the Whitechapel Gallery, Laban and the Freud Museum in London.

Start your day with a morning yoga class designed to reinvigorate your energy and spirit. Enjoy a grounding, energising, alignment‐based yoga practice, using the breath and sound to rediscover and rejuvenate the body and mind. Beginners and experienced students are most welcome. Yoga mats and props are provided.

Please contact Kanga Wellbeing on spa@kangaevents.com for any questions relating to these classes. As capacity is limited, we recommend booking in advance to avoid disappointment.

Kanga Wellbeing will also be onsite throughout the Festival offering wellbeing and a wide range of holistic massage therapies. Therapies will be held in cosy lotus belle tents with heaters and fans. For more information or to book, please visit www.kangaevents.com/hay-festival. For enquiries, please email spa@kangaevents.com.

Bring your best ideas to this solutions-focused workshop session. Facilitated by sustainability entrepreneur Andy Middleton, Chief Exploration Officer at the TYF Group, and joined by Jade Brudenell, Executive Director of the Conservation Collective, we’ll look at the key issue of water. We’ll discuss the scale of the issue and a range of solutions, how to action them, how they might impact on their lives and how to manage the change.

We used to take water for granted, but recent droughts, floods and disruption show that’s no longer a sure bet. Good quality water is vital for reducing the global burden of disease, food production and our everyday health and wellbeing. Unpredictable extremes created by the climate emergency mean that water supplies are erratic and there’s often too much or too little. Today more than 1.7 billion people live in river basins where more water is used than recharged by nature. How can we ensure that the world’s populations are heading away from, rather than towards, water stress?

This workshop is part of our Hay Festival Planet Assembly, a daily, inclusive conversation over ten days involving lay people, scientists, commentators and experts. We want to empower everyone to be accelerators and multipliers for the dramatic policy transformations that are needed immediately to tackle the acute climate and biodiversity emergencies.

Sign up to our free Planet Assembly daily briefing.

Helen and John Price and the next generation, Rhiannon and Humphrey Wells, open the gates to their farm for a visit led by agronomist Jonathon Harrington and vet Barney Sampson. This traditional family farm is adapting to meet the challenges of a new era to build a sustainable future for food production. Learn about the choices they face relating to soil and the environment, livestock and climate change, and their plans to be carbon negative within the next 3 to 5 years. See cattle and sheep and the crops that are grown to feed them, and taste beef from the farm served in bread rolls at the end of the visit.

With thanks to Helen & John Price and Rhiannon & Humphrey Wells for welcoming us to their farm.

Please wear walking boots or Wellingtons and waterproof clothing in case of inclement weather. These are visits to real working farms and are suitable for anyone interested in learning more about food and farming. Families are welcome but children must be supervised at all times.

A little light ridicule, mockery and fun to start the day as the satirists read the tabloids and surf the social media storms for an irreverent look at what’s tickling the nation’s fancy – and driving it to splenetic fury – today.

Kanga Wellbeing will also be onsite throughout the Festival offering wellbeing and a wide range of holistic massage therapies. Therapies will be held in cosy lotus belle tents with heaters and fans. For more information or to book, please visit www.kangaevents.com/hay-festival. For enquiries, please email spa@kangaevents.com.

Guides from the Brecon Beacons National Park will lead a gentle walk through the beautiful surrounds of Hay-on-Wye. Learn more about Hay-on-Wye’s iconic ancient and veteran trees. You’ll be joined by Daniel Raven-Ellison and Hannah Engelkamp who are launching the Welsh and Gaelic versions of their Slow Ways Map detailing a network of walking routes that connect all of Great Britain’s towns and cities.

Hay-on-Wye is based within 520 square miles of beautiful landscape that makes up Bannau Brycheiniog (Brecon Beacons) National Park. The National Park is driving change to bring about a sustainable future, meeting our needs within planetary boundaries. Their Hay Festival series of gentle walks will take you into the town’s local environment while offering the opportunity to learn more about the Park’s work and its treasured landscape.

Please wear appropriate footwear and outdoor gear.

The Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction is the UK’s premier non-fiction book prize. To celebrate its 25th anniversary, a Winner of Winners Award was announced to recognise the outstanding work of the previous 24 prize-winners. This one-off award, crowning the best work of non-fiction from the past 25 years, goes to James Shapiro, winner in 2006. His book 1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare follows the playwright as he invests in the new Globe theatre and writes four of his most famous plays – Henry V, Julius Caesar, As You Like It and Hamlet. Joining us digitally, Shapiro talks to historian and writer Sarah Churchwell (in person).

Journey around the planet with the author and illustrator of If the World Were 100 People, shortlisted for the Royal Society Young People’s Book Prize 2022. Learn about all kinds of cultures in this globe-trotting experience for younger readers. It can be hard to get your head around the scale of our world full of 8 billion people. Imagining the world as a global village of just 100 people makes it much easier to understand all the different aspects of life in our society.

The small-scale world that Jackie McCann and Aaron Cushley have created in their vibrant picture book offers answers to questions such as: are there more males or females? What languages do they speak? Who can read and write? How many have access to the internet or have enough food to eat? Does everyone have access to electricity or clean water? Finding out the answers will help you become a global citizen.

Get your voice heard and be the difference you want to see! Radio Platfform provides a platform to express yourself. In this radio and podcasting workshop we’ll use activism and protest as a starting point – you’ll learn all the best tricks and tips about what makes a good podcast before having a go at recording and producing yourself.

Radio Platfform is a youth-led radio station working from the Wales Millennium Centre, with studios in Cardiff Bay and Porth. Since its inception in 2016, it offers accredited training in audio production, and members have job opportunities as well as hands-on experience at gigs and events.

An opportunity to get crafting! Activities differ every day, including everything from print-making to junk modelling with recycled materials. Get messy and creative: your imagination is the limit.

Book for the session and you can drop in at any point during the 2.5 hour duration. Accompanying adults: please stay in attendance at all times, but you do not require a ticket.

Bushcraft and survival expert Ray Mears turns his gaze closer to home with British Woodland, which offers a different way to experience our wooded landscapes. Using his deep natural history knowledge and practical woodcraft skills, gained over a lifetime of learning from the world’s last remaining indigenous peoples, he challenges old concepts, looks to our ancestors and shows how man’s hand in shaping woodland is critical. Mears’ television programmes include Ray Mears Goes Walkabout, and he founded the Woodlore School of Wilderness Bushcraft over 35 years ago. In conversation with Robert Penn, author, journalist, TV presenter, woodsman and co-founder of 'Stump up for Trees'.

The What a Carve Up! and Number 11 author Jonathan Coe returns with a novel telling the story of Britain through four generations of one family in Bournville, the Birmingham suburb famous for its chocolate factory. Beginning with 11-year-old Mary in 1945, Coe tracks 75 years of social change, from the Coronation and the World Cup final, to royal weddings, royal funerals, Brexit and Covid-19. Coe, who was born a few miles from Bournville, brings his trademark profundity and humour to his new book, and this discussion.

Drawing on her own experience as an author of three books, with two children and juggling three jobs, Kiri Bloom Walden talks about the difficulties faced by women trying to bring up a family and live a fulfilled created life. Bringing in historic examples, Walden explores the history of creative working mothers, and offers strategies for how to keep all the balls in the air and fulfil your creative ambitions without having to wait until the children are old enough to leave home. Walden is a part-time tutor at the University of Oxford’s Department of Continuing Education.

Hay! It’s Ask the Nincompoops! Who invented cheese? What’s the opposite of a kettle? Why do giraffes have eyes? Whatever your question, the Nincompoops will answer it… very badly indeed. Join Andy ‘Mr Gum’ Stanton and Carrie ‘actor and comedian’ Quinlan for a hilarious, interactive event full of rumours, wild flights of fancy and downright lies. Huzzah!

Get your voice heard and be the difference you want to see! Radio Platfform provides a platform to express yourself. In this radio and podcasting workshop we’ll use activism and protest as a starting point – you’ll learn all the best tricks and tips about what makes a good podcast before having a go at recording and producing yourself.

Radio Platfform is a youth-led radio station working from the Wales Millennium Centre, with studios in Cardiff Bay and Porth. Since its inception in 2016, it offers accredited training in audio production, and members have job opportunities as well as hands-on experience at gigs and events.

Do you ever wish there was a word to sum up that feeling of being distressed by a bad haircut? Or to describe just how shocking it feels to jump into icy water? Well, there are (age-otori and cwtch respectively). Join lexicographer Susie Dent (Word Perfect, An Emotional Dictionary) as she describes the indescribable, focusing on words that truly sum up human emotions and experiences, and sharing more of the wisdom of words she imparts regularly on her Twitter account.

We are a wonder of evolution. Powerful yet dextrous, instinctive yet thoughtful, we are expert innovators. These abilities have created the civilisation we know today. But we're also deeply flawed. Our bodies break, diseases thwart our boldest plans, our psychological biases have resulted in terrible decisions in war and peacetime. This contradiction is the essence of what it means to be human, says the astrobiologist and New Scientist contributor, whose earlier book Origins: How the Earth Shaped Human History, was described by historian Peter Frankopan as "a sweeping, brilliant overview of the history not only of our species but of the world". In his new title, he explores how our biology has shaped our relationships, societies, economies and wars.