Hay Festival 2025 Full Programme

Start your day with some thoughtful, dynamic vinyasa yoga where the emphasis is on mindful alignment, focusing on each individual and your experience of a pose. Sequences encourage considered movement, using both active and passive ranges of motion to explore and enhance your strength and mobility.

Expect carefully designed flow sequences, where joints are stabilised and muscles engaged, your body moving with your breath to enhance concentration and aid meditation. Jess offers modifications and extensions to make her classes as accessible as possible, giving you the agency to choose how deep to move within your practice.

You’ll be encouraged to tune in to your body and breath, using your practice as a conduit to self-enquiry and a chance to learn what your body and mind can do, both on and off the mat. A keen practitioner of yoga for two decades, Jess has been trained by some of the most respected and experienced teachers in the world, including Adam Husler, Jason Crandell and Bridget Woods Kramer.

Open level – some experience useful but both 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.

Agronomist Jonathon Harrington and vet Barney Sampson lead a tour of Trevithel Court, David and Catherine James’ traditional mixed farm with orchards supplying apples for Bulmers, Westons and other cider producers in Herefordshire and Wales. Walk among the apple trees and learn about cider production; look inside a beehive and learn how bees make honey and store it for the winter, and why they are so essential for pollination. You can sample some of the cider and honey produced on the farm. See the quality beef cattle fed with the grass and arable crops grown on the farm and the machinery used for crop production and harvesting. Trevithel Court is run by David James in partnership with his son Will James, the fourth generation of the family to farm here.

With thanks to David & Catherine James and family for welcoming us to their farm.

Start the day at Hay Festival with headline guests chaired by editors from The Independent reviewing the news, discussing the headlines and issues of the day, and revealing what’s breaking and trending online. A fascinating look at what’s tickling the nation’s fancy – and driving it to splenetic fury. Bring your coffee!

Among today’s guests are Paralympic athlete and presenter Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson and award-winning comedian Sara Pascoe, host of BBC2’s Great British Sewing Bee and author of Sex Power Money.

Author James Cahill considers art, artists and selling out in this discussion with Hay Festival President Stephen Fry. Cahill’s new novel The Violet Hour follows Thomas Haller, who has achieved the kind of fame that most artists only dream of, but the vision he presents of being an untouchable genius at the top of his game is a lie.

On the eve of his latest show, the luminaries of the art world gather. But a chain of events begins that will lead the friends back into the past, to confront who they have become. The Violet Hour exposes the unsettling underbelly of the art world, asking questions about who is granted admission and who is left outside.

Cahill has worked in the art world and academia for 15 years. His debut novel, Tiepolo Blue, was shortlisted for the Authors’ Club Best First Novel Award.

Do you know a grubber from a yorker? Can you identify the golden rules of slip and outfield catching? How does a batter recover from the dreaded royal duck? And where on earth do players find room for all those teas?

Cricket legend and Test Match Special commentator Ebony Rainford-Brent talks to science communicator Adam Rutherford about her career, shares behind-the-scenes insight from the game, and leads a whirlwind tour of cricket.

Rainford-Brent is a cricket legend and multi-award-winning TV presenter and broadcaster. She was the first Black woman to represent England at cricket and paved the way for greater inclusivity in the game. She is a regular commentator on Test Match Special for the BBC and Sky.

English was a marginal dialect in the late ninth century, spoken by just a couple of hundred thousand. So how did it become the most common language in the world, spoken by 1.6 billion people today? Sir Rupert Gavin charts the evolution of English, and argues that it is ideal as the global language, not just by accident of history, but by fundamental construction and constitution.

Gavin has been a central figure in the UK’s cultural, historical, media and business worlds for the last 40 years. He has held senior roles at companies including British Telecom, Odeon Cinemas and Historic Royal Palaces. He is currently chairman of the English National Ballet, and the cinema chain The Living Room Cinema, and has produced or co-produced over 200 theatre shows.

Guides from the Bannau Brycheiniog National Park lead a walk through the beautiful historic environment of Hay-on-Wye.

Hay-on-Wye is located 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.

Ever wondered what donuts get up to when they’re not being eaten? No, because that would be silly! But it turns out, donuts have BIG PLANS FOR WORLD DOMINATION! Meet Sprinkles, the leader of the Squad; Jammyboi, who spreads stickiness everywhere; and Spronky, who is bizarrely unconventional. But don’t mention the arch-nemeses of the donuts… the bagels, secretly plotting Donut Squad’s doom!

Cartoonist and writer Neill is creator of the award-winning Mega Robo Bros series and How to Make Awesome Comics. Guffaws are guaranteed in this event about his super sweet and scrumptiously silly new graphic novel – perfect for lovers of Bunny vs Monkey and Dog Man.

Please bring your own sketchbook and pencils to this event.

One hundred years after his birth, what is Richard Burton’s legacy? Mr Burton, the 2025 biopic starring Harry Lawtey, Toby Jones and Lesley Manville, fictionalises the early life of the beloved Welsh actor. Set in 1940s Port Talbot, the film tells the extraordinary true story of the relationship between a schoolmaster named Philip Burton and a wild young schoolboy, Richard Jenkins, who dreamed of becoming an actor. Mr Burton recognised his pupil’s raw talent, and made it his mission to fight for him, becoming his tutor, strict taskmaster and eventually his adoptive father…

The film’s director Marc Evans, producer Ed Talfan and screenwriters Tom Bullough and Josh Hyams discuss the Welsh acting Titan and the making of their production, showing clips from the film.

The bestselling authors Tracy Chevalier (Girl with a Pearl Earring) and SJ Parris (Alchemy) compare notes on writing spellbinding historical fiction.

Chevalier’s The Glassmaker is set in Venice, 1486, where Orsola Rosso flouts the convention barring women from glassmaking, to save her family from ruin. She knows her creations must be perfect to be accepted by men – but will she ever earn the respect of those closest to her? Parris’ Traitor’s Legacy takes us to England in 1598, when a young heiress is found murdered at the theatre. Queen Elizabeth’s spymaster calls upon former agent Sophia de Wolfe to investigate, but her quest soon takes her into dangerous waters.

After fifteen years at the pinnacle of test rugby, leading the most successful squad in Welsh history, Dan Biggar tells his story. In conversation with presenter and co-writer Ross Harries, Wales’ most capped fly-half offers a rare insight into his personal and professional life.

His playing style has been described as brash, aggressive and forthright, and it has earned him a reputation he has never been able to shake. But to anyone who knows him off the pitch, he is one of the most grounded ambassadors the game could ask for.

Honest and self-critical, Biggar talks candidly of his place within rugby, from the Premiership through to the Lions, and of the power dynamics within Wales’ most successful squad ever. He also opens the changing room doors and explores his relationships with past team mates, coaches and managers.

Take a deep dive into the story of information with author and illustrator Chris Haughton (A Bit Lost). His latest work is a graphic handbook to the biggest influence on human history.

Exploring the ways humans share and store information, and how this has shaped and changed the world, we travel through time from the first languages and cave paintings to how we communicate and record information today. With illustrations in his signature style, Chris shows us everything we know and how we know it!

Please bring your own sketchbook and pencils to this event.

Kes Gray eats Ideaflakes for breakfast, spreads silliness on his toast and loves to write books that will make children laugh out loud. Come and join him in this hilarious interactive event where he’ll be reading from the latest Oi book, Oi Dinosaurs!, and sharing lots of dinosaur jokes.

According to Frog, in dinosaur times sitting down hadn’t been invented. So . . . Pterosaurs didn’t sit on bendy straws? Velociraptors didn’t sit on plug adaptors? And Triceratops didn’t sit on lollipops? Frog, Cat and Dog bring us oodles of prehistoric rhyming fun packed with dinosaurs, mammoths and – of course – prehistoric frogs! This event is guaranteed to get little dinosaur fans giggling.

Children’s author and vet Gill Lewis shares her new inspiring tale of wildlife adventure and conservation. A camping trip to count puffins on Devil Bird Island turns into a real adventure for friends Tia and Nat. First, they have to rescue a mysterious marine animal caught in a fishing net and swept very far from home. Then, when it gets dark, they hear strange wailing and something white and ghostly flies at their tent. Safely back home, they unravel the mysteries of the previous night and learn some important lessons about how everyone on the planet needs to look out for the wildlife around them.

Enjoy a twenty-minute open air performance between events with Feast of Fools, an a cappella quartet from the South West of England singing traditional and contemporary folk songs.

Prepare for brutal honesty and lots of laughter as friends Kathy Lette and Ruby Wax discuss growing older, the problems and joys of being a feminist of a certain age, and how to deal with life-changing events.

The pair, who met in the 1990s, look at their work and lives, and give a glimpse into their friendship. Lette’s latest book HRT: Husband Replacement Therapy is an outrageously funny, heartbreaking novel about a woman who is diagnosed with cancer on the eve of her 50th birthday, and who decides to start living instead of complying.

Lette has written 20 books and has recently completed a tour of her one-woman show, Girls Night Out. Wax is a comedian, performer and bestselling author who also campaigns on mental health.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time author weaves ancient fables into fresh, unexpected forms and forges new unforgettable legends, reimagining stories from Laika the Soviet space dog on her fateful orbit to St Anthony wrestling with loneliness in the desert.

The myth of the Minotaur in his labyrinth becomes a wrenching parable of maternal love – and of the monstrosities of patriarchy. Actaeon, changed into a stag after glimpsing the naked Diana and torn to pieces by his hunting dogs, becomes a visceral metaphor about how humans use and misuse animals. From genetic engineering to the eternal complications of family, Haddon shows us that we’re subject to the same elemental forces that obsessed the Greeks.

Approach the natural world with awe, as environmental justice researcher Joycelyn Longdon merges ancient wisdom with modern technology. Talking to travel and adventure writer Dan Richards, she inspires us to view climate action as a shared goal rather than an individual burden.

Longdon, an AI and bioacoustics researcher at the University of Cambridge, examines rage, imagination, innovation, theory, healing and care in Natural Connection. The book celebrates the histories and extraordinary acts of ordinary people who have paved the way for today’s environmental movement, bringing together stories and wisdom from marginalised people and celebrating the power of community.

Come and listen to this year’s celebrated Hay Festival Writers at Work. This thrilling 2025 group of ten Welsh writers will share new fiction and poetry, in English and Cymraeg.