Hay Festival Winter Weekend 2023

In this intimate event, join Tom True, the executive director of Hay Castle, to watch the switching on of the Christmas lights from the viewing platform at the top of Hay Castle’s historic Norman tower. Champagne and canapés are included in the ticket price.

Just six places in the UK have International Dark Sky Reserve status, from where you can see unrivalled views of the beautiful night sky without light pollution; among them is Bannau Brycheiniog National Park, which Hay Castle sits on the edge of.

Join artist Judy Goldhill, astronomy professor Stephen Pompea, and Catherine Mealing-Jones, chair of the Bannau Brycheiniog Dark Skies board, as they discuss with architect and curator Ro Spankie the beauty and awe of our dark skies and why we should care about these spaces.

An exclusive one day writing workshop exploring story writing, exploring themes from your own life and memories. If you have the urge to write but don’t know where to begin or have made a start but need fresh impetus to push on through to the end of a draft, this day is for you. Drawing on fiction and memoir, we will play with the toolbox a new writer needs: character, story, structure, and setting. Tiffany will lead you through practical writing exercises, and the day will be supportive, productive, creative, and fun.

Tiffany Murray’s memoir, My Family and Other Rock Stars is published by Little Brown in 2024. Her novels Diamond Star Halo, Happy Accidents and Sugar Hall, have variously been shortlisted for the Wodehouse Bollinger Prize and received the Roger Deakin Award for nature writing. Tiffany has been a Hay Festival Fiction Fellow, a Fulbright scholar, and a Senior Lecturer. Her series, ‘Hulda’s Café’ is available on BBC Radio 4.

The workshop is for adults only, and is limited to 12 people.

Join us to make your own glowing and glorious festive lantern using recycled materials.

The workshop will be held in the Coach House at Hay Castle, so we suggest you dress warmly and ready to get a little bit messy.

Come along to explore and learn about the solar system, before making your own planets wrapped in wool or a model of Jupiter using galaxy play dough.

The workshop will be held in the Coach House at Hay Castle, so we suggest you dress warmly and ready to get a little bit messy.

Ever wanted to take a photo of the magnificence of the night sky, but only succeeded in capturing a dull blue and a blurred moon? Then come along to this night photography workshop, where you’ll learn photography techniques for your phone, including how to take a star trail photo.

Prepare to be charmed, chilled and thrilled as Daniel Morden tells strange stories of the supernatural by candlelight in the evocative setting of Hay Castle’s Great Hall.

Morden has been telling traditional stories for more than 30 years, and weird tales are a particular speciality.

His books include Dark Tales from the Woods and Strange Tales. In 2017 Morden was awarded the Hay Festival Medal for his services to storytelling.

Hay Castle’s executive director Tom True introduces the key moments and characters from the castle’s past over a continental breakfast. The event also includes an insight into Hay Castle’s Dark Skies exhibition.

Join writer Kim Sherwood, the first woman to write an official James Bond book, to explore how crime fiction comes together from a writer’s perspective.

Sherwood will lead a discussion and practical exercises on creating compelling characters, structuring story and developing setting.

This workshop, for adults only, will offer a look at the crime genre with guidance on how to make it your own.

Sherwood’s Double or Nothing is the first novel in a new series of books set in the universe of Ian Fleming’s James Bond. Her first novel Testament won the Bath Novel Award and Harper’s Bazaar Big Book Award. In 2019, she was shortlisted for The Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award.

Sherwood is the creative writing lecturer at the University of Edinburgh.

Join us to create your own intergalactic rocket or space shuttle using recycled materials.

The workshop will be in the Coach House at Hay Castle, so we suggest you dress warmly and ready to get a little bit messy.