Hay Festival 2026

Come along to the Family Garden to meet Hay Festival 2026 Illustrator in Residence Charlotte Hepburn and join in this fun family activity. Charlotte’s illustration style is full of bright colours, bold shapes and lots of fun. She’ll guide families in the collective creation of a really big bug mural, featuring all your favourite creepy-crawlies! All materials are provided, just bring your imagination.

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 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.

Parliamentary sketch writer John Crace casts his sharp and acerbic eye over our current political chaos and governmental absurdity. Crace assesses whether the Labour government has provided any of the change the UK was expecting, looks at the erosion of the Tory party and the rise of Reform, and predicts what the future of our politics might be, in conversation with cross bench peer Rosie Boycott.

Crace’s newest book is a compilation of some of his much-loved Guardian columns. His other books include Taking the Lead: A Dog at Number 10, Depraved New World, Decline and Fail and I, Maybot.

A rare opportunity to hear from actor and rapper Ashley Walters on the release of his memoir. He discusses Always Winning, a candidly-written account of a turbulent past and a philosophy for turning his life around, with writer, presenter and former barrister Afua Hirsch.

Walters’ on-screen performances and rap career have been as explosive as his off-screen life. After experiencing London gang culture, prison and addiction, he completely changed his life – here he shares the framework he adopted to overcome challenges and find inner purpose.

A BBC Radio 3 lunchtime concert series. This first of three recitals recorded for broadcast features Daniel Norman and Anna Tilbrook (piano)

Join Adam Fleming, BBC Europe editor Katya Adler and BBC political correspondent, Alex Forsyth for a rare chance to be in the audience for the BBC's daily news podcast, Newscast. Adam, Katya and Alex will dive into the day's biggest stories. Don’t miss out on seeing one of the UK’s biggest podcasts in action.

Meet Hilda and Twig! Hilda is everyone’s favourite blue-haired heroine, and her best friend, deer-fox Twig, is the perfect companion as they explore the wilderness together. Come and develop your design skills with their Emmy and BAFTA award-winning creator Luke Pearson, who’ll show how to draw your favourite characters.

This is a brilliant and fun introduction to comics, and after sketching up a storm, you’ll get the chance to ask Luke your burning Hilda questions. Netflix have made a critically-acclaimed animated series based on the books, Hilda, and the mischievous duo continue their adventures in Hilda and Twig: Wake the Ice Man.

Wouldn’t it be great if we could share our thoughts with animals, and hear theirs in return? Trace what those thoughts might be with Nicola Davies as she introduces Skrimsli, her new fantasy adventure about the early life of the tiger sea captain who stole our hearts in The Song That Sings Us.

Skrimsli and his friends must escape the clutches of a tyrannical circus owner and his twin assassin-acrobats, then stop a war and save an ancient forest, helped along the way by a series of unusual characters. It’s a story full of excitement and danger, exploring friendship, loyalty, identity and love, in the context of some of humanity’s toughest problems. Nicola is Children’s Laureate for Wales 2025–27.

Step into the weird and wonderful world of Kitsch & Sync Collective. This high-energy comedy dance theatre workshop whirls through eccentric characters, time-travelling moves and toe-tapping tunes. Expect laughter, silliness and joyful movement for all. Led by Kim Noble, co-founder of the company.

Come on a walk through the beautiful surrounds of Hay-on-Wye, led by guides from the Bannau Brycheiniog National Park. The Park’s expert ecologists will introduce you to some of the captivating local flora and fauna.

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 and its treasured landscape.

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.

Caitlin Moran LOVES reading. Growing up, the library was her salvation. "I had all of history and time and gossip and adventure and love waiting for me at the library," she says. Reading soon led to writing. She was a Times columnist by the age of 18, and has gone on to become a best-selling author and award-winning journalist.

In this special session to celebrate Caitlin's passion for reading, she shares the books that have had the greatest impact on her throughout her life. She's in conversation with Laurence Mozafari from the British Society of Magazine Editors.

At a pivotal moment for our climate, economist and academic Nicholas Stern comes to Hay Festival with a powerful message: we do not have to choose between prosperity and the planet.

Drawing on decades at the forefront of international climate policy – including his landmark Stern Review – Stern argues that climate action is the growth story of the 21st century. The real risk lies not in acting, but in failing to act. Bringing together economics, finance, politics and behavioural science, he sets out a bold, practical vision for transforming our economies to deliver sustainable, inclusive growth while tackling the climate and biodiversity crises head on.

As Chair of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics, Stern offers an unrivalled insight into what must happen next. Urgent, authoritative and solutions-driven – this is an essential Hay Festival conversation about the future we choose. He talks to the BBC’s Europe editor Katya Adler.

Master storyteller Helen Oyeyemi presents her playful new novel A New New Me.

Set over the course of a week, the book is the story of Kinga, who exists in seven different versions, Kingas A to G. When Kinga A discovers a man tied up in their apartment, the Kingas have to deal with the possibility that one of them might be planning to destroy them all.

Oyeyemi is the author of several novels including Parasol Against the Axe, and won the Somerset Maugham Award for White is for Witching. She talks to journalist Kirsty Lang.

Experience evocative storytelling that bridges page and screen, in this screening of award-winning actor Sacha Dhawan’s narration of George Orwell’s profoundly impactful and thought-provoking classic.

Dhawan gives an electrifying and fresh approach to Orwell’s chilling critique of totalitarianism and the dangers of unchecked power. Despite the book’s bleak tone, the compelling narrative ensures its enduring popularity and relevance.

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

If you enjoy discussing the books you love, this event is for you. Join Harriett Gilbert and well known guests from the worlds of literature and entertainment for BBC Radio 4’s hugely popular programme A Good Read. Harriett and her guests each choose a favourite book to deabter and discuss. Her guests will be author Philippa Perry and broadcaster Stuart Maconie.

Author Sir Michael Morpurgo and broadcaster Clare Balding discuss the children’s classic Black Beauty, Anna Sewell’s story about the kind-spirited horse and the compassion and cruelty he witnesses, and its parallels with Michael’s best-selling novel War Horse.

Michael has recently retold this unforgettable story set in Victorian Britain for today’s readers. He has often said it was Black Beauty that showed him how he might tell the story of War Horse, through the eyes of a horse that witnesses the horror of war from both sides. War Horse, which was published over 40 years ago, has been adapted into a hugely successful stage play by the National Theatre.

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.

The perfect session if you love new ideas, original thinking and passionate speakers. Here we present three very different solutions to the climate emergency all on one ticket! Comedian and presenter Sandi Toksvig explains how she’s restoring her own ancient woodland, best-selling author Ian McEwan shares his hope for nature’s resilience in the face of climate change, and former president of the National Farmers’ Union Baroness Minette Batters issues a love letter to life on the farm. They speak to David Shukman, whose new book raises the alarm on the fires and floods of Britain’s new climate extremes.