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Event 8
Kate Bottley talks to Cole Moreton
A Spiritual Guide Through The Seasons
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Castle Marquee
Find inspiration to celebrate and connect with seasonal and spiritual traditions with the Reverend Kate Bottley.
On this fascinating journey through the year in The Faith Almanac, Kate leads us from chalking the door post on Twelfth Night (even the dog can get involved!) and baking King Cake on 6th January, to crafting harvest decorations, preparing for Advent, and all the high days and holy days in between. She talks to writer and broadcaster Cole Morton about how to introduce simple, meaningful rituals into our everyday lives.
Kate rose to fame on Channel 4’s Gogglebox. She now presents Good Morning Sunday on BBC Radio 2 and BBC One’s Songs of Praise.
Price: £18.00
Booking fees are calculated at 5% per order, with a minimum charge of £3.50 and capped at a maximum of £10.
The Monk’s Mindset: Finding Stillness in a Busy World
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Hay Castle – The Gallery
Is your mind always racing? Do you struggle to slow down when your days are so busy? Join fitness instructor and former Buddhist monk Sam Yo for an interactive session that offers both emotional insight and practical tools to guide you back to calm, focus and purpose.
Sam talks to writer and broadcaster Cole Morton, sharing the transformative lessons that have helped him move from chaos to clarity. Drawing on his monastic training, he leads a short breathwork practice as well as a gratitude exercise, promoting mindfulness, self-discovery, resilience and spiritual growth. Come along to discover that the stillness you seek has been within you all along.
Please bring your own notebook and pen to this event.
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Spend an intimate afternoon with acclaimed actor and screenwriter Greg Wise, sharing his personal experiences of loss as a way of helping us all to be more open about the pain of losing loved ones. In this strikingly thoughtful and moving session, he’ll set out the importance of honesty, vulnerability and ritual to navigate the chaotic, messy journey of death. And he calls for us to reject the behind-closed-doors culture of mourning, in favour of a more open processing of grief, as a direct path to being able to be happy again. “I don’t think I ever really felt joy until I faced into my grief,” he says. Greg talks to psychotherapist and author Julia Samuel.
Price: £18.00
Booking fees are calculated at 5% per order, with a minimum charge of £3.50 and capped at a maximum of £10.
Three Brothers in a Boat: A True Story of Adventure and Purpose Rowing the Pacific
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St Mary’s Church
How do ordinary people achieve the extraordinary? In 2025, the Maclean brothers – Ewan, Jamie and Lachlan – set the fastest known time for rowing across the Pacific Ocean, raising £1 million for charity in the process. But how did they grow from complete novices into record-breaking pros?
Find out how the journey – nail-biting, uplifting and inspiring – tested their resolve, their relationships and their belief in one another.
The brothers are founders of the Maclean Foundation, with a mission to raise funds for clean water projects. They talk to Tori James, a record-breaking adventurer who herself has taken on some of the most extreme challenges on our planet.
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Later Life Letter: A Story of Family, Adoption and Love
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Hay Castle – The Gallery
Luke Wright brings all the wit, pathos and silliness that has made him one of our most popular live poets to this warm and moving hour exploring family and adoption through poems and conversation.
A later life letter is written by a child’s social worker to be opened at an appropriate age, detailing their journey from birth to adoption. When Luke received his as a teenager, he didn’t think much of it. But now, he re-examines his own past – and the life he might have had.
Price: £14.00
Booking fees are calculated at 5% per order, with a minimum charge of £3.50 and capped at a maximum of £10.
Emma-Louise Boynton, Kate Lister and Erika Lust talk to Nicola Cutcher
Lust, Flick, Pleasure: Female Desire
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Hay Castle – The Gallery
An unmissable exploration of female sexuality and desire, with cutting-edge thinking from three experts on the many ways that sex can change the world. From disconnection to control and from private pleasure to porn, this event will break through the boundaries of conventional thinking about sex.
Emma-Louise Boynton, host of media platform Sex Talks, is author of Pleasure: The Reclamation of My Body. Kate Lister is host of award-winning History Hit podcast Betwixt the Sheets and author of Flick: The Story of Female Pleasure. Film-maker Erika Lust (Lust: Pleasure, Performance, Power) has spent decades pioneering ethical, feminist pornography. They talk to investigative journalist Nicola Cutcher.
Price: £16.00
Last few remaining tickets
Booking fees are calculated at 5% per order, with a minimum charge of £3.50 and capped at a maximum of £10.
David Olusoga with Symeon Brown and Charlotte Higgins
The News Review
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Castle Marquee
Chew over the biggest news stories of 2026 in our review of the year, led by writer and historian David Olusoga. Revisit the good, the bad and the I-forgot-that-happened moments of the year, as our panel of cultural commentators bring personal perspectives and first-hand experiences of the stories that defined 2026.
David will be joined by Channel 4 home affairs correspondent Symeon Brown and The Guardian’s chief culture writer Charlotte Higgins. They’ll traverse the Strait of Hormuz, tackle heatwaves and wildfires, examine advances in AI and World Cup outrage, and pick out the political moments that defined 2026, from Andy Burnham to Count Binface.
The perfect way to begin your Sunday at Hay Festival Winter Weekend.
Price: £18.00
Booking fees are calculated at 5% per order, with a minimum charge of £3.50 and capped at a maximum of £10.
