Hay Festival 2026

Ever wondered what aliens really look like? What do they wear, how tall are they, are they really green? Decide for yourself when you design your very own alien in this event with sci-fi fanatic and creator of The Unexplained series, Adam Allsuch Boardman.

Get your creative cogs turning with the intriguing ‘exquisite corpse game’, then move on to building your alien’s backstory. Using prompts from real-life UFO sightings and folk art, you’ll imagine their history and form your own intergalactic tale to share with your friends. Adam will also explore the science behind supernatural research and suggest how spectacular sightings link to popular culture.

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.

Enjoy this 20-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.

In this rare and personal conversation, BBC news presenter Sophie Raworth interviews her sister, the economist Kate Raworth, about her groundbreaking book Doughnut Economics. Kate is at the forefront of rethinking how the economy works, so that everyone can live well without compromising the planet. During this intelligent and thought-provoking session, Kate and Sophie explore the challenges of how we meet people’s needs within the Earth’s environmental limits; and ponder the parallel lines of their own careers and how they’ve inspired each other along the way. Warm, insightful and full of humanity, this is a must for those who enjoy smart, accessible discussion about the world’s biggest challenges – and how we might fix them.

An homage to Afghanistan and its people from two veteran foreign correspondents. Afghanistan has been beset by war and turmoil for decades, and yet its people do not give up hope. Foreign correspondent Jon Lee Anderson and the BBC’s chief international correspondent Lyse Doucet share their experiences of covering Afghanistan since the 1980s, the people they’ve met and stories they’ve heard, and why Afghanistan means so much to them.

Anderson is a seasoned war and international reporter. To Lose a War collects his writing from Afghanistan from the late 1980s. Doucet’s The Finest Hotel in Kabul is the story of the Inter-Continental Kabul hotel, a symbol of power and cosmopolitanism, and the people who work there. They talk to investigative journalist Oliver Bullough.

From Sappho to Virginia Woolf and James Baldwin, LGBTQ+ writers have told their stories throughout history – excavating the queer experience and laying a foundation for the writers of today. Santanu Bhattacharya, Kiran Millwood Hargrave and Joelle Taylor talk to actor and writer Carys Eleri about the stories that shaped them, finding (or not finding) themselves in the characters they came across growing up, and their journeys to writing.

Bhattacharya’s Deviants is about three generations of men from the same family, all dealing with social taboos and laws criminalising homosexuality, and the legacy they leave. Millwood-Hargrave’s Almost Life is about a couple whose love story spans decades and time together and apart. Taylor’s new poetry collection Maryville explores dyke counterculture through a cast of characters who meet in a butch bar.

The best-selling author of An American Marriage returns to Hay Festival to talk about her luminous and deeply moving new novel about mothers, daughters and friendship. She talks to Tanya Burr, who runs monthly bookclub Chapter, a space for readers to celebrate literature and connect through thoughtful discussion.

In Kin, Vernice and Annie are inseparable, brought together by the shared absence of their mothers. Growing up in the segregated America of the 1950s and 1960s, the women are led down different paths. A treat for fans of literary fiction, this event is a chance to hear from Jones – the author of five novels – about her work and inspirations. An American Marriage won the Women’s Prize for Fiction and was one of President Barack Obama’s summer reading lists.

Hear the chants of ‘Women, Life, Freedom’, as strong as they’ve ever been, echoing through generations of Iranian women protesting imposed, patriarchal restrictions. Inspired by the ‘rebel poet of Iran’ Forugh Farrokhzad, new publication Iranian Women’s Voices brings together the perspectives of creative women in Iran and the diaspora, as they reflect on art, the constraints of present-day Iran and their dreams for the future.

Join this afternoon of poetry, film and Iranian music, presented by WritersMosaic, with writer and translator Shara Atashi, poet author Sana Nassari, poet and performer Marjorie Lotfi and musician Roya Arab. The event is introduced by historian Colin Grant and features the extraordinary documentary photography of Hengameh Golestan, whose work captures women protesting the oppression of the Iranian authorities.

Tom Gates and his hilarious homework diary are celebrating 15 years in 2026. Come and enjoy this laugh-out-loud event filled with his adventures, doodles, friends, foes and caramel wafers! You’ll be kept busy with everything from games and storytelling to a live draw-along with much-loved author/illustrator Liz Pichon, where she’ll show you how she brings her best-loved Tom Gates and Mubbles characters to life.

Whether you’re a fan of the books, love the TV series (or both!) or you’re new to Tom and his friends, this event will be pure fun.

Come and learn how to make willow stars using willow grown in Herefordshire on the farm where The Cart Shed Charity operates. Simple weaving techniques will be taught and all participants will take home a star they have made from this beautiful, sustainable material.

The Cart Shed supports young people aged 10–25 and adults of all ages experiencing poor emotional wellbeing. Creative activities and emotional support given by skilled practitioners and clinicians empower people to overcome challenges and live life well. On Friday 29 and Saturday 30 May they’ll be demonstrating some of the techniques they use, on the Festival site.

Come on a walk through the beautiful surrounds of Hay-on-Wye, led by guides from the Bannau Brycheiniog National Park. 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 countryside 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.

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.

Acclaimed historian and writer Andrea Wulf brings to life the extraordinary story of George Forster, the 18th-century writer and explorer known for documenting Captain Cook’s second voyage around the world. His writings on the people and cultures he encountered transformed how Europeans understood the wider world. Drawing on Forster’s vivid letters and personal accounts – much of them never-before published in English – Wulf reveals a man of dazzling intellect and visionary thinking. For history-lovers and those interested in forgotten figures who shaped the modern world. She talks to the host of the BBC’s In Our Time, Misha Glenny.

Enjoy an afternoon with award-winning stage, screen and voice actor Richard Armitage, best known for his roles in North & South, The Hobbit trilogy and Oceans 8. Armitage turned author with his first novel Geneva in 2023, and now comes to introduce his second – psychological thriller The Cut.

The book is set in a village where, 30 years previously, one of Ben Knott’s school friends was murdered and another was convicted of the crime. The village has tried to move on, but as a movie is filmed in the area, Ben begins to recognise the storyline from his own past, and it becomes clear the killer is back.

Armitage discusses writing the book with literary journalist Alex Clark, revealing which film experiences he used as inspiration, and shares the difference between writing and acting.

Experience evocative storytelling that bridges page and screen, in this screening of Luke Thompson’s narration of Oscar Wilde’s only novel, a dark, glittering masterpiece that explores the seductive power of beauty and the ruin of the soul.

The Bridgerton actor delivers a spellbinding performance of Wilde’s haunting tale of beauty, vanity and moral corruption, where eternal youth comes at a terrible price, in this mesmerising film production.

The Read is a series of outstanding on screen performance readings of iconic British novels. Each episode offers a richly immersive celebration of literature

A chance to see an unforgettable and unique music-play about the life and work of the composer Andrzej Panufnik. Award-winning writer and actor Tama Matheson and award-winning pianist Clare Hammond deliver an emotional performance about Panufnik, one of the 20th century’s great artistic voices.

From Panufnik’s early musical awakening in war-torn Poland, to near-death encounters under Nazi occupation and oppression under Soviet rule, all culminating in a heart-stopping car chase, Matheson and Hammond perform a hilarious, heartbreaking and harrowing show about a life shaped by courage, loss and unbreakable artistic integrity.

Join the much-loved author/illustrator of Ottoline and Goth Girl to dip a toe into the underwater secrets of his new fantasy adventure. In A Mermaid’s Diary, we meet shy mermaid Atalanta Scrimshaw, who lives a quiet life in the backwater of Sleepy Cove. But Atalanta must break out of her comfort zone when unscrupulous developers threaten to transform her home into a seaside golf resort.

The former Children’s Laureate will share insights into this tale full of his stunning illustration and signature allusive wit. Can Atalanta enlist her friends’ help to stop the development from destroying her home?

Discover more about Black British history with actor and author Paterson Joseph, as he takes us back in time to meet ten inspiring, rebellious and brave children. Goddaughter to the Queen of England. Human rights activist. Librarian and author. Former slave… The ten were all born when slavery was still legal, but went on to change the world for the better, helping to secure their own freedom and the freedom of so many. Paterson will tell the stories of the ten aged ten, and answer the question: how did these inspirational people change the world?

Paterson is one of Britain’s best-loved actors (Vigil, Noughts & Crosses, Wonka, Peep Show) and author of award-winning historical novel The Secret Diaries of Charles Ignatius Sancho. Ten is his first book for children.

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.