Hay Festival 2026

An hour of movement and breathwork, led by a highly-skilled Hay-on-Wye practitioner, to start your day at Hay Festival with open heart and mind. 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, this yoga class is open and accessible to all. The class leader will adapt to different levels of experience, so that each student takes what they need from the practice.

Begin the day with a guided tour of Hay Castle led by its director, art historian Tom True. Explore the castle’s layered history, meet some of the characters who once shaped it and hear how it is being reimagined today as a place for ideas, art and thoughtful encounters. The tour includes time to experience the castle’s new interactive interpretation on the second floor, followed by coffee and pastries.

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

Writer and children's laureate, Frank Cottrell-Boyce kicks off a bold campaign to get young people talking. Improving a child’s speaking skills is proven to directly improve their life chances, and the biggest transformations can be seen in children from the poorest backgrounds. Frank Cottrell-Boyce reveals the real-world impact of encouraging young people to express their thoughts and make their voices heard, and is joined by some surprise guests in his mission to help those from the toughest beginnings find a better life through the power of speaking.

Explore the hidden history of Britain’s coast-to-coast web of walkways with geographer and travel writer Nicholas Crane as he chats to nature journalist Nicola Cutcher. This event takes you from the prehistoric routeways walked by European migrants 12,000 years ago to the Hadrian’s Wall Path and the banks of the Severn, via our national parks and long-distance trails, which emerged from the ashes of two world wars.

Crane, who is a presenter on the BAFTA-winning series Coast, talks about the routes he took for his new book The Path More Travelled, the discoveries he made along the way, and offers up a passionate ode to walking, urging us all to rediscover and protect our landscapes.

An hour of visceral poetry performance led by the Vietnamese artist Nhã Thuyên and the duo MontenegroFisher, this event showcases an artistic exploration of two rivers – the Red River, which runs through Vietnam, and the River Wye, which runs through Wales.

Inspired by the classical female poet Ho Xuân Hương, this international collaboration results in a performance resonating with resilience, sensuality and nature’s force. Joined by two emerging artists from Wales the project interprets landscape, language and sound through the lens of ecology. Dr Wanda O’Connor is an academic and writer working in contemporary poetry and poetics; Lowri Hedd Vaughan is a regenerative practitioner concerned with the restoration of natural living systems.

Watch a selection of short films, curated by MUBI, throughout the morning. The day’s schedule will be listed each morning at the venue – pop along and take a look.

Step into the magical world of Bird & Blend Tea Co., discover the secrets of tea mixology and create your own perfect blend in an immersive and interactive Tea Mixology Experience led by an expert mixologist. This hands-on workshop invites you to taste up to six unique blends and test your tea knowledge with an engaging and fun tea matching game.

With expert guidance, you’ll get to craft two custom tea blends to take home and pair with your next fave book! You’ll also learn about different tea types and brewing tips to enhance your tea-making ritual at home. There’ll be an opportunity to ask questions, plus you’ll get a goody bag with free samples. Visit the Bird & Blend Tea Co. stand afterwards for a free gift with purchase (find a special token in your goody bag). Book now – it’s going to be TEArrific!

The Platform is a space for young, emerging artists to share their work with Hay Festival audiences. Spanning a diverse range of art forms it aims to help promote and develop outstanding young creative artists aged between 21 and 28 who are at the start of their careers. These three works are taking place across the festival site from 10-5pm. There are also three artists performing in the Creative Hub at 7pm (free but ticketed)

Beth Lewis - Ebb & Flow

Ebb & Flow is a sound installation inspired by rock pools and the act of deep listening. Discover a series of handcrafted cardboard sculptures embedded with speakers, breathing life into immersive coastal landscapes. Come to the rock pool to rest a while and explore the tidal pools, seals, coastal birds and seaweed formations. An invitation to slow down and listen to the seals singing, seabirds calling and lose yourself in a swelling coastal soundscape and ambient folk music as the tide comes in and out. Ebbing and flowing.

Beth Lewis is a sound artist and creative technologist. She creates scores and sound design for live performance, screen and site-specific art and develops interactive installations in XR and other immersive technology. Her work is rooted in creating the opportunity for play and reflection, combining her love of music and the natural world into immersive, interactive playgrounds.

Hannah Hoebeke - Tea Talk

Tea Talk is a one-day performance in which tea, conversation, and sculpture come together in a shared experience. Visitors are invited to sit with the artist, engage in conversation, and have their portraits sculpted in clay. Throughout the day, a single block of clay is continuously reshaped — each new face replacing the last, leaving only the final portrait as a trace of all the encounters that preceded it.

Hannah Hoebeke is a sculptor from Ghent, Belgium, whose practice relocates the traditional studio encounter into social and community environments. Working directly from sitters, she uses the act of sculpting as a method of encounter — a way to slow down, occupy shared space, and open room for deeper conversation

Scott Wearing - Sonic Networks

Sonic Networks is an immersive audio-visual installation that transforms live video input into dynamic electronic soundscapes. Using the provided phones, participants can explore their environment through the camera lens, discovering a sensory crossover where sight becomes sound.

Scott’s research focuses on electronic and alternative forms of musical scores that reshape how performers interact—both with the score itself and with each other. By moving beyond traditional notation, his work explores new ways of guiding performance, often encouraging more dynamic, responsive, and collaborative relationships between performers.

Award-winning author and illustrator David Litchfield is bringing his Bear Band to Hay Festival on a 10th anniversary concert tour! David will read his book The Bear and the Piano, (winner of the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize 2016) accompanied by live music, with David on guitar, Rebecca De Winter on piano and lots of audience participation.

After this very special story time, stick around to help David create a piece of animal-related artwork. You can even join David’s Merry Band of Bears as they perform a live music concert. There’ll be plenty of fun for both Little Bears and Big Bears.

Don’t miss some far-out fun with Olaf Falafel! Join the award-winning comedian, author and illustrator for a fun, interactive session inspired by his new graphic novel The Far-Out Five: Snot Jelly Island. Olaf will be telling jokes, sharing tips on creating funny comics and guiding you through drawing one of his wonderfully weird characters. Warning: this event will contain art, farts and bum-faced woodlice!

An opportunity to get crafting! Activities differ every day, including everything from print-making to junk modelling with recycled materials. The theme for today is rivers, with support from The Rivers Trust. 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.

Step inside Hay Castle – a border stronghold shaped by myth, power and reinvention. Visit the current BorderLands exhibition delivered in partnership with Meadow Arts, and enjoy full access to the castle, from cellar to rooftop. Explore rooms layered with stories, including Matilda’s room, the Richard Booth space, historic costumes and the castle cellar.

Visit the dungeon and climb to the viewing platform for wide views across the Wye Valley. Your ticket also includes unlimited return visits for a full year, so you can come back as the seasons – and the castle – change.

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 Meadow Arts BorderLands exhibition.

Step away from the Festival site and into the rich border landscape that surrounds Hay-on-Wye on this gentle circular guided walk of around four miles, led by local professional walking guide Sarah Price. The route takes in the border-defining Dulas Brook and the hamlet of Cusop, encompassing St Mary’s Church and the ancient Cusop Castle mound, as well as a section of Offa’s Dyke Path.

Throughout the walk, Sarah brings the landscape to life with stories drawn from local history, lived experience, and years of guiding in the area. This is an ideal walk for anyone who enjoys history, place and thoughtful walking — a chance to explore the wider landscape that has long inspired writers, thinkers and wanderers.

Step inside Hay Castle during Hay Festival 2026 and explore a place shaped by power, survival and reinvention. Led by an expert volunteer guide, this tour traces 800 years of life inside the castle – from medieval plots and royal whispers to its rescue, restoration and reimagining as a place for ideas today. You’ll move through rooms, stairways and towers, hearing stories of the people who lived, schemed, dreamed and partied here. Along the way, take in sweeping views across the Wye Valley – a reminder that this is a border castle, built to watch and be watched.

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

Discover the miraculous and often misunderstood world of hormones in this lively and engaging conversation. Leading endocrinologist Dr Saira Hameed, author of Signals, speaks to comedian Sara Pascoe about how hormones write life’s masterplan, as well as control our minute-to-minute experiences, from appetite to mood.

Combining science, history and patient stories, this informative and accessible event will have you thinking differently about hormones, and provide a deeper understanding of how health and happiness depends on their power. Hameed is a consultant endocrinologist for the NHS, a senior tutor and an honorary clinical senior lecturer at Imperial College London.

Are you obsessed with romantasy yet? Book sales are growing faster than in any other genre – it’s a booming market and its fan base is passionate and loyal. Here a panel of experts explain why it’s so successful and consider what we should learn about the huge appeal of worlds where women are in control. Imani Erriu is author of the Heavenly Bodies romance fantasy series, Hazel McBride writes the Bonded to Beasts series, and Rachel Winterbottom is publishing director for bespoke romantasy imprint Wayward TxF.

Erriu’s latest book Fallen Stars continues the story of Elara and Enzo, first introduced in Heavenly Bodies. A third book, Holy Monsters, is expected next year. McBride’s A Queen Crowned in Flames is the searing conclusion to her Celtic-inspired duology that began with A Fate Forged in Fire. Winterbottom and Wayward TxF have published Sable Sorenson’s Direbound, among others. They talk to author, journalist and creator Jess Bacon.

In this entertaining event for absolutely everyone, we’re celebrating inclusivity in reading in an interactive storytelling session for all the family.

We are delighted to welcome some of the winners of the 2026 IBC Awards winners: The Beautiful Layers of Me by Sophia Payne and Ruchi Mhasane; Supa Nova by Chanté Timothy; and Cloud Boy by Greg Stobbs.

Inclusive Books for Children (IBC) is a charity with a free website for families, schools and libraries to help easily choose books for a more inclusive bookshelf. IBC showcases stories that represent all types of family, featuring books with a variety of ethnicities, positive images of disabilities and different identities.

The IBC Awards celebrate the talent behind the best new inclusive children’s books published in the UK across three categories: baby and toddler books (1–3 years), picture books (3–7 years) and highly illustrated children’s fiction (5–9 years). This year IBC celebrated the inaugural IBC Children's Choice Awards, with winners chosen by children across the country.

The Hay Festival bookshop features a dedicated Inclusive Books for Children section showcasing IBC’s top-reviewed books of the year. Come along and get your books signed after the event.

Enter the dangerous, magical world of the Geomancer, as Kiran Millwood Hargrave leads us through a quest with the future of the whole world at stake. In The Ship of Strays, the thrilling third book in her epic fantasy trilogy, heroine Ysolda has unlocked the earth magic, and its powers are rising within her. With a rebel princess by her side, she is racing against the fearsome wolf queen. But they’re in for a stormy journey…

In this inspiring mixed media workshop, you’ll explore the legendary Persian bird, the Simurgh, and the folklore that surrounds it. The Simurgh is a mythical creature and an ancient symbol that appears across time and cultures and in different legends, often with varying roles, qualities and names. It is sometimes depicted with a head of a dog, lion’s claws and a peacock’s body. All materials and equipment provided – just bring your imagination!

University of Worcester staff and students from the Department of Illustration and the International Centre for the Picture Book in Society (ICPBS) return to Hay Festival with their engaging workshops to inspire all young creatives.

An opportunity to get crafting! Activities differ every day, including everything from print-making to junk modelling with recycled materials. The theme for today is rivers, with support from The Rivers Trust. 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.