Free Events

Join Clive Anderson and guests for an eclectic mix of conversation, music and comedy in this special live recording of Radio 4’s long-running variety show.

Join Phil Wang and Susie Dent as they challenge special guests to invent new words to help create the new ultimate Unspeakable dictionary.

Doctors Chris and Xand van Tulleken are delighted to invite you to their new BBC Radio 4 podcast.

In What’s Up Docs? they debate everyday health and wellbeing dilemmas and search for the best solutions. They want to make sense of the constant barrage of information we receive from newspapers, social media, and even other podcasts! They want to know whether to go for testosterone replacement OR how to avoid heavy metals in our diets, how can they get more willpower and what can they do about dodgy knees. And can they get rid of bad breath?!

Together with a guest expert, they examine the latest research, psychological insights, and data. In this episode, prepare to cheer up as they explore the science of the smile.

Be in the audience as Huw Stephens and Kiri Pritchard McLean bring you remarkable stories live from Hay Festival. Their guests include author and Gavin and Stacey star Ruth Jones, and journalist and author Stacey Dooley, while Murdle puzzle master GT Karber reveals his mysteries. Plus, as always, they’ll have the Inheritance Tracks of one celebrity and a moment of gratitude from a listener in Thank Yous.

Enjoy this twenty-minute open air performance between events. The Decis are an a capella women’s group from Hay-on-Wye and the surrounding villages. Singing together since 2014, the Decis perform a variety of songs including blues, folk, early music, and anything else they fancy.

Enjoy this twenty-minute open air performance between events. Got 2 Sing Choir perform uplifting songs from top of the charts to golden oldies, with plenty of fun and laughter.

Enjoy this twenty-minute open air performance between events. Got 2 Sing Choir perform uplifting songs from top of the charts to golden oldies, with plenty of fun and laughter.

Enjoy this twenty-minute open air performance between events. Love To Sing Choir was created in January 2024. Their first public performance saw them win Gold at the Herefordshire Performing Arts Festival, only six weeks after they formed! The choir has performed at many events including Ludlow Fringe Festival and Applefest in Hereford, and in the musical Make Good: The Post Office Scandal.

Join the Aberystwyth Book Club live at Hay Festival for a chance to earwig on the book club team as they dive into their latest pick. Recorded for BBC Radio Wales.

Can listening to music improve our wellbeing? Why does sad music lift our mood? Can classical music really make us smarter? Join broadcaster, BBC Radio 3 Unwind presenter and psychologist Dr Sian Williams and cognitive neuroscientist Professor Catherine Loveday as they discuss the power of music and its ability to help us focus, bring us calm and support us through the day.

For more than three decades the Moral Maze on BBC Radio 4 has brought together different worldviews and challenged conventional thinking in the spirit of philosophical enquiry. Come and join a lively, provocative and engaging debate, examining an ethical issue of the day, chaired by the veteran BBC journalist Michael Buerk. With panellists: Ash Sarkar (writer at Novara Media), Anne McElvoy (journalist and executive editor at POLITICO), James Orr (Cambridge philosopher) and Mona Siddiqui (professor of Islamic and Interreligious studies at the University of Edinburgh).

Enjoy a twenty-minute open air performance between events, of traditional and modern songs from the sea with big harmonies. Hay Shantymen have been performing since 2018, at international shanty festivals such as Falmouth and Port Isaac, and have raised over £15,000 for their chosen charity, the RNLI. Under a new Musical Director, Grant Olding, their arrangements and harmonies are stronger than ever – always sung with engaging wit, warmth and friendship.

Enjoy a twenty-minute open air performance between events, of traditional and modern songs from the sea with big harmonies. Hay Shantymen have been performing since 2018, at international shanty festivals such as Falmouth and Port Isaac, and have raised over £15,000 for their chosen charity, the RNLI. Under a new Musical Director, Grant Olding, their arrangements and harmonies are stronger than ever – always sung with engaging wit, warmth and friendship.

Enjoy a twenty-minute open air performance between events. Singing is fun with Hay Community Choir – good for mental health, feeling you’re part of a whole. Come along and have a listen as the Choir share their joy in music.

For the second year running BBC Radio 4’s book lovers’ delight A Good Read comes to Hay Festival.

Harriett Gilbert is joined by two guests including broadcaster and comedian Kiri Pritchard-McLean choosing their favourite books to discuss with each other and you the audience. Guests in the last year on the show include Irvine Welsh and Andrew O’Hagan, Rachel Parris, Elif Shafak, Ian Rankin and Amy Liptrot.