Hay Festival 2025 Full Programme

Start your day with an hour of kundalini yoga – the oldest and most transformative yoga practice. Blending physical postures, breathing techniques, meditation and mantra to awaken our life force energy located at the base of the spine, it opens us up to reach our highest potential. This unique yoga style offers profound benefits across the physical, emotional and spiritual realms. In this special class, Lucy offers a dynamic medley of the kundalini practices, designed to leave you feeling both grounded and energised, with a profound sense of peace and overall wellness as you rejoin the hum of the Festival.

Lucy Teear is a kundalini yoga teacher, plant-based nutritionist and health coach with a powerful story of transformation, following two aggressive breast cancer diagnoses in 2010 and 2016. She teaches kundalini yoga workshops at Larchwood Studios in Hay-on-Wye and runs health and yoga retreats around the world.

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.

Start your day the right way with online sensation Shaolin Master Shi Heng Yi, who has inspired millions to develop daily practices for body and mind, blending martial arts with Buddhist practices.

Shi Heng Yi’s parents (Laotian immigrants to Germany) enrolled him into Shaolin Kung Fu aged four knowing it would cultivate in him a strength of mind. As an adult, he returned to the teachings and began to develop a Shaolin school for modern living. He founded the Shaolin Temple Europe, a Buddhist community in Germany.

Join Shi Heng Yi as he talk to writer and education specialist Lamorna Ash about how to develop a strong mindset and body, and shares some of the exercises that will help you find balance and energy. Shi Heng Yi’s TED Talk on five hindrances to self-mastery has been watched over 17 million times.

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 is Friederike Otto, Senior Lecturer in Climate Science at Grantham Institute, Imperial College London and Harriet Wistrich, founder director of the Centre for Women’s Justice, a founder member of campaign group Justice for Women, and author of Sister in Law.

In today’s polarised and polarising world, we need to zoom into the processes happening inside each of us. Why do some people become radicalised? Who is most susceptible to ideological thinking? Can we unchain our minds from toxic dogmas? Dr Leor Zmigrod is a pioneer in the field of ‘political neuroscience’, and drawing on her groundbreaking research she uncovers the hidden mechanisms driving our beliefs and behaviours.

Learn more about our political beliefs and ideologies – not transient thoughts in our minds, divorced from our bodies, but actually changing our neural architecture, our cells. Find out about rigid thinking in ourselves and others, and how to recognise our ability to resist irrational rules and authority. Regardless of your political stance, Zmigrod will challenge you to reassess your convictions – and what they are doing to your brain.

Playwright Suzie Miller introduces Prima Facie, her book about a brilliant defence barrister at the top of her game who realises the rules might not be in her favour after a date goes wrong.

Miller’s book, an international runaway success, is based on her award-winning play of the same name, which starred Jodie Comer as barrister Tessa Ensler. The play itself led to changes in the legal profession regarding what juries are directed to consider when they deliberate on rape cases.

Miller is an international playwright, librettist and screenwriter. She has a background in law, and has won numerous awards, including the Australian Writers’ Guild, Kit Denton Fellowship for Writing with Courage and an Olivier Award.

Guides from the Bannau Brycheiniog National Park lead a walk through the beautiful surrounds of Hay-on-Wye. You’ll be joined by local experts who will give their insights into this treasured landscape.

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.

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.

We’re going on a bear hunt. We’re going to catch a big one. Will you come too? For a quarter of a century, readers have been swishy-swashying and splash-sploshing through this award-winning classic. Follow household favourite and former Children’s Laureate Michael Rosen and wade through the grass, splash through the river and squelch through the mud in search of a bear. What a surprise awaits us in the cave on the other side of the dark forest!

Join David Lindo, also known as the Urban Birder, for a birding walk along the River Wye to celebrate his debut children’s book Fly. On the walk you’ll learn endless facts about the wildlife near Hay Festival and spot many birds, potentially even the elusive Kingfisher! Be sure to bring your binoculars if you have a pair for this special guided event.

Please dress for the weather – wellies advised.

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 and their grown-ups will have you tapping sticks, roaring like dinosaurs, flying with unicorns, dancing with scarves, playing with parachutes and so much more. Come and meet our puppets, explore our range of instruments and listen to the beautiful sound of the cello.

Captivating young imaginations and creating lasting memories, these sessions offer a unique musical adventure. The perfect way to boost wellbeing, increase confidence, spark creativity and introduce children to the joy of music.

Come and join Rooted Forest School for some outdoor family sessions offering natural creativity for everyone. We’ll use willow and natural materials to create a collaborative piece of nature art in the Family Garden. Dress for the weather and expect to get messy! These sessions will run whatever the weather, so make sure you’re wrapped up for the conditions.

An opportunity to get crafting! Activities differ every day, including everything from print-making to junk modelling with recycled materials. Get messy and creative in these interactive sessions delivered by artists and discover that your imagination is the only 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.

Battles, borders, books and breakfast! Come and explore Hay Castle with its director Tom True, who will introduce the history and invite you to get to know some of the characters from the castle’s past. He’ll also talk about running Hay Castle for the past three years.

Coffee and pastry included in the ticket price. Meet in the Great Hall.

Legend has it that Hay Castle was built in a day by a giantess called Matilda who hurled a stone across the Wye at the end of construction. Find out about this story and more with this entry ticket that also allows you to visit the castle as many times as you like for a year. Explore Matilda’s room, the castle’s costumes and cellars, and the Richard Booth Archive, and make your way right to the top for amazing views from the viewing platform.

This ticket allows you to visit the Castle at a time of your choice on the day selected, and also gives you entry into the 20th Century Welsh Artists exhibition on the second floor.

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.

Dairy-free and gluten-free options available.

Online sensation Master Shi Heng Yi leads this guided workshop, revealing the wisdom of Shaolin teachings for modern life. Shi Heng Yi founded the Shaolin Temple Europe. He will share powerful exercises in breathwork, movement and mindfulness to help release tension, build body awareness and access hidden layers of your being.

Reflecting the teachings in his new book Shaolin Spirit, these tried and tested routines are the foundations of Zen Buddhism as well as the source of power for Kung Fu warriors – and you can master them too, unlocking the potential hidden inside you.

Join us for an exclusive guided tour led by one of our passionate volunteer guides during Hay Festival 2025. Our knowledgeable guides will take you on a captivating journey through the castle, revealing tales of medieval knights, royal intrigue and the castle’s remarkable restoration. As you explore the castle you’ll gain unique insights into the lives of those who once called this place home. The tour also offers breathtaking views of the surrounding countryside, providing the perfect backdrop for your visit.

Guided tours run daily at 11am and 2pm. Tour price includes entry into the Castle for a year including the current exhibition: 20th Century Welsh Artists.

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.

Dairy-free and gluten-free options available.

British broadcaster Naga Munchetty (BBC Breakfast) leads a candid discussion about women’s health and pain, exploring why the healthcare system can often feel rigged against women.

Munchetty spoke out in 2023 about her diagnosis of the gynaecological condition adenomyosis and her struggles to be taken seriously by healthcare professionals despite years of pain and symptoms. In response, scores of women shared their own stories of feeling dismissed by doctors, and Munchetty went on to campaign on the issue. Her book It’s Probably Nothing explores the challenges of being heard, diagnosed and treated.

In this event Munchetty looks at why women’s pain and health issues have historically been ignored – and why pain has been viewed as an innate part of being female – and highlights the things women need to do to advocate for themselves in the healthcare system.