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Hay Festival 2024

Escape the day-to-day at Hay Festival Hay-on-Wye 2024. Join us 23 May–2 June at our free-to-enter Festival site. Explore the full programme and book your individual events below. If you want to see the programme at a glance, please use our schedule view.

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ActivityMorning Yoga with Hay Yoga Collective

Event 301

Morning Yoga with Hay Yoga Collective

–  Creative Hub
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Start your day with an hour of yoga blending movement, mantra, meditation and breathwork. The classes support detoxification and regeneration – physically, emotionally and spiritually. Our daily yoga classes are brought to you by a collective of ten highly skilled practitioners, all local to Hay-on-Wye. Each practitioner has their own style, but with all you can expect a mindful, student-focused practice with clear cueing and functional sequencing.

Whether you need grounding and recharging before a busy day at the Festival, an opportunity to stretch and move your body, or simply an hour to focus on your breathing, these classes are open and accessible to all. Practitioners will adapt to different levels of experience, providing options for deepening or softening within poses so that each student takes what they need from the practice. Beginners and experienced students are most welcome. Yoga mats are provided.

Please contact Clare Fry at hello@larchwoodstudio.com with any questions relating to these classes. As capacity is limited, we recommend booking in advance to avoid disappointment.

Please wear loose, comfortable clothing, and alert your practitioner at the start of class if you have any injuries.
This event has taken place
ActivityHay Castle Entry Ticket

Event HC18

Hay Castle Entry Ticket

–  Hay Castle
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A fantastic opportunity to see behind the scenes of this unique and historic building. Visit at a time of your choice during Castle opening hours.

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ActivityBreakfast Tour with Tom True

Event HC19

Breakfast Tour with Tom True

–  Hay Castle
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Hay Castle’s executive director Tom True introduces the key moments and characters from the castle’s past followed by a continental breakfast.

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PanelDavid Olusoga, Kate Raworth and guests

Event 302

David Olusoga, Kate Raworth and guests

The News Review

–  Global Stage
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Start your day at Hay Festival with our daily news review. Join our leading journalists and special guests as they take us behind the headlines with insider perspectives, insights and an eye on what’s next. Strong coffee recommended!

Among today's guests is historian David Olusoga, Professor of Public History at the University of Manchester, and economist Kate Raworth, senior associate at Oxford University’s Environmental Change Institute and a Professor of Practice at Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences. Olusoga is author of Black and British: A Forgotten History, and presenter of Britain’s Forgotten Slave Owners and documentary series Civilisation. Raworth is author of Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist and a member of the World Health Organization's Council on the Economics of Health For All. They will be joined by social philosopher and internationally best selling author Roman Krznaric. Krznaric is Senior Research Fellow at Oxford University’s Centre for Eudaimonia and Human Flourishing, founder of the world’s first Empathy Museum and author of many books about the power of ideas to create change including The Good Ancestor: How to Think Long Term in a Short-Term World. Empathy, The Wonderbox and Carpe Diem Regained, and History for Tomorrow: Inspiration from the Past for the Future of Humanity. Chaired by writer and journalist Sarfraz Manzoor.

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PanelPragya Agarwal, Lucy Jones and Clover Stroud talk to Candice Brathwaite

Event 303

Pragya Agarwal, Lucy Jones and Clover Stroud talk to Candice Brathwaite

Metamorphosis in Motherhood

–  Wye Stage
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Three acclaimed thinkers and writers discuss the far-reaching effects of maternity, with author and journalist Candice Brathwaite. Women undergo a huge physiological, psychological and social metamorphosis during pregnancy, childbirth and early motherhood. There is no time other than adolescence that entails such dramatic change, yet the huge diversity in its effects go largely unrepresented and undiscussed.

Dr Pragya Agarwal is a behavioural scientist, University of Cambridge Fellow and author of (M)otherhood: On the Choices of Being a Woman. Lucy Jones is author of Matrescence: On the Metamorphosis of Pregnancy, Childbirth and Motherhood, a radical new examination of how motherhood changes the mind and body. Clover Stroud is a journalist and author of My Wild and Sleepless Nights: A Mother’s Story and The Red of My Blood: A Death and Life Story.

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ConversationDan Evans, Richard Gater, Ryan Davey and Valerie Walkerdine

Event 304

Dan Evans, Richard Gater, Ryan Davey and Valerie Walkerdine

Social Class in Contemporary Britain

–  Discovery Stage
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For a country that is obsessed with class, no one in the UK seems to know what class is. Class is often reduced to cultural signifiers – our accent, what food we eat, what clothes we wear, how we decorate our houses. Or class is portrayed as if it is solely an economic matter. But these ways of thinking obscure more than they illuminate. Our panel explores the modern class structure in the UK. They discuss how class is lived and experienced; how class interacts with other identities such as race and gender; and the relationship between class and political behaviour.

Walkerdine is Professor at the Cardiff University School of Social Sciences, where Ryan Davey is a lecturer and Richard Gater is a research assistant at the Centre for Adult Social Care Research. Dan Evans is a researcher at Wales Institute of Social and Economic Research and Data.

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PerformanceWriters at Work/Awduron wrth eu Gwaith

Event 305

Writers at Work/Awduron wrth eu Gwaith

Readings

–  Writers at Work Hub – Hwb Awduron wrth eu Gwaith
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Hay Festival’s 2024 Writers at Work/Awduron wrth eu Gwaith give a public reading of their current work. An opportunity to experience the best Wales has to offer in fiction, non-fiction and poetry. Writers at Work is a creative development programme for emerging Welsh talent at Hay Festival.

Free but ticketed
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ActivityWayfaring Walk with a National Park Guide

Event 306

Wayfaring Walk with a National Park Guide

–  Meeting Place on Festival Site
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A guide from the Bannau Brycheiniog National Park leads a walk through the beautiful surrounds of Hay-on-Wye. A local expert gives insights into this treasured landscape.

Hay-on-Wye is based within 520 square miles of beautiful landscape that makes up the Bannau Brycheiniog 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 walks 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. We regret we cannot accommodate dogs on this walk.
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WorkshopThe Art of Decision-Making in the Face of Climate Change

Event 410

The Art of Decision-Making in the Face of Climate Change

A collaborative, real-world simulation

–  Located in the Bright Orange marquee opposite the Meadow Stage entrance
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Imagine a focus group created by escape room designers, where 12 players work
together to safeguard the future of a fictional company threatened by the impending and
uncertain impacts of climate change. That experience is called Do What You Must.

Participate in this entertaining, interactive workshop to uncover essential insights on how
groups work together and how the challenge of climate change requires us to
collaborate differently.

Participants will be guided through the 2-hour workshop by a team from the UCL Climate
Action Unit, which closes with a debrief with one of the co-creators of the experience:
Neuroscientist and Science Communicator, Dr Kris De Meyer.

Discover the art of decision-making in this beautifully created simulation from the critically
acclaimed digital storytelling studio Fast Familiar.
16+ years
This workshop is repeated on Thursday 30th, Friday 31st and Saturday 1st at 10am and 2pm
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ConversationBBC Academy: Creating a Detective

Event 443

BBC Academy: Creating a Detective

–  Exchange Marquee
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The curator of the Liverpool Football Club Museum is leaving to become a writer. He has just signed a publishing deal for his series of Inspector Vignoles novels and shares how he’s embracing the change.

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ConversationJulian Clary and David Roberts

Event F69

Julian Clary and David Roberts

The Bolds

–  Meadow Stage
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Dream team Julian Clary and David Roberts spill the beans on their fabulous series. Mr and Mrs Bold are just like you and me: they live in a nice house, they have jobs and they love to have a bit of a giggle. One slight difference: they’re hyenas. Yes, that’s right – they’re covered in fur, have tails tucked into their trousers, and they really, really like to laugh. So far, the Bolds have managed to keep things under wraps, even when their children Bobby and Betty were born. But when the nosy man next door smells a rat (or a hyena), could it spell the end of their well-kept secret? Whatever will the neighbours think?

7+ years
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ConversationSophy Henn

Event F70

Sophy Henn

Happy Hills: Giant Danger Kittens

–  Spring Stage
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Welcome to Happy Hills – it’s a place where anything can happen and always does! Join Sophy Henn, author/illustrator extraordinaire of the hilariously funny graphic novel series. She takes us on a journey through Happy Hills to meet the friendly and not-so-friendly residents, discovering lots of characters along the way who make you flex those creative muscles.

5+ years
Please bring your own sketchbook and pencils to draw along in this event.
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WorkshopReady, Steady, Music! Workshop

Event W67

Ready, Steady, Music! Workshop

–  Creative Hub
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Get your Hay day off to a brilliant start with our daily Ready, Steady, Music workshops! With different activities each day, these interactive, fun-filled sessions for mini musicians will have you tapping sticks, roaring like dinosaurs, flying with unicorns, dancing with scarves, playing with parachutes and much more. Come and meet our puppets, explore our instruments and be accompanied by the beautiful sound of the cello.

0–4 years
Parents/carers must attend but do not need a ticket.
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WorkshopPizza-making Workshop

Event W68

Pizza-making Workshop

Kitchen Garden Pizza

–  Family Garden
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Come to the Family Garden for a pizza masterclass with Kitchen Garden Pizza. In this one-hour session your imagination and creativity will be fed along with your belly! You’ll get your hands messy with freshly grown and foraged ingredients, make and top your own dough and observe the pizzaioli at work at the wood-fired oven. And while you wait for your pizza to cook, you can decorate your own pizza box!
Dairy-free and gluten-free options available.

4+ years
Parents/carers must attend but do not need a ticket.
This event has taken place
ActivityMake & Take Crafting

Event MT22

Make & Take Crafting

Saturday Morning Session

–  Make & Take Hub
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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 1.5 hour duration. Accompanying adults: please stay in attendance at all times, but you do not require a ticket.

3–11 years
This event has taken place
WorkshopPizza-making Workshop

Event W69

Pizza-making Workshop

Kitchen Garden Pizza

–  Family Garden
Read more

Come to the Family Garden for a pizza masterclass with Kitchen Garden Pizza. In this one-hour session your imagination and creativity will be fed along with your belly! You’ll get your hands messy with freshly grown and foraged ingredients, make and top your own dough and observe the pizzaioli at work at the wood-fired oven. And while you wait for your pizza to cook, you can decorate your own pizza box!
Dairy-free and gluten-free options available.

4+ years
Parents/carers must attend but do not need a ticket.
This event has taken place
ConversationJane D Hartley and Keri Russell talk to Helena Kennedy

Event 307

Jane D Hartley and Keri Russell talk to Helena Kennedy

(Un)scripted: Fictional and Real Diplomacy

–  Global Stage
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A real ambassador and a fictional one meet to discuss the world of diplomacy in this event, chaired by Baroness Helena Kennedy. Jane D Hartley, the United States Ambassador to the UK, and Keri Russell, who plays the American ambassador in the TV series The Diplomat, speak about international relations, power and all those official receptions.

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ConversationPaul Lynch talks to Alex Clark

Event 308

Paul Lynch talks to Alex Clark

Prophet Song

–  Discovery Stage
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The internationally acclaimed Irish novelist’s Prophet Song won the Booker Prize 2023. On a dark, wet evening in Dublin, scientist and mother-of-four Eilish answers her door to find two officers from Ireland’s newly formed secret police. They’re here to interrogate her husband, a trade unionist. Ireland is in the grip of a government turning towards tyranny and when her husband disappears, Eilish finds herself caught within the nightmare logic of a society that is quickly unravelling. With literary journalist Alex Clark, Lynch discusses his devastating vision of a country at war and his deeply human portrait of a dystopia that could be just around the corner.

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ConversationAura García-Junco and Isabella Hammad talk to Daniel Hahn

Event 309

Aura García-Junco and Isabella Hammad talk to Daniel Hahn

–  Wye Stage
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Mexican writer Aura García-Junco and British-Palestinian author Isabella Hammad talk to translator Daniel Hahn about writing on both sides of the Atlantic, in a continuation of a conversation that was held at Hay Festival Querétaro 2023, in Mexico. García-Junco is an author, screenwriter and occasional translator who, in 2021, was named by Granta magazine as one of the best young writers in the Spanish language. Her fourth book May God Blast the Woman Who Writes About Me has just been published in English. Hammad was included on the Granta Best of Young British Novelists 2023 list. She is author of Enter Ghost, about a woman who returns to Palestine after years away from her family’s homeland.

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ConversationBBC Radio 4: Start the Week

Event 444

BBC Radio 4: Start the Week

–  Exchange Marquee
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The geneticist Adam Rutherford explores how indigenous stories of the natural world are entangled with scientific understanding of the environment. He’s joined by Robin Wall Kimmerer the botanist and Native American, and author of Braiding Sweetgrass. The ecologist and hedgehog expert Hugh Warwick investigates the thorny issue of invasive species, and killing in the name of conservation, while the writer Olivia Laing goes in search of a garden sanctuary, and the long, and sometimes troubled, history of making paradise on earth.

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