Hay Festival 2025 closed Sunday 1 June after record numbers enjoyed more than 600 events with writers, thinkers and performers over 11 days.
Highlights can be enjoyed on Hay Festival Anytime now at hayfestival.org/anytime for an annual subscription of £20 per year.
Held at the Festival’s free-to-enter site in the booktown of Hay-on-Wye, this year’s event launched the best new fiction and non-fiction books, while offering insights and debate around significant global issues, world-class comedy and music, and a vibrant programme of pop-up events, workshops, and activities for all ages.
In numbers, the Festival saw almost 200K tickets sold, up 8 per cent on last year; more than 52K books were sold, up 10 per cent; and 6,725 school pupils attended the free schools days.
Free content was made available across the UK with BBC shows broadcast live from the site, free events in libraries with the Living Knowledge Network, and highlights on social media generating more than 62 million views and counting.
Headliners included activists Yulia Navalnaya, Mary Trump, Caroline Darian; actors Jameela Jamil, Michael Sheen, James Corden, Stephen Fry; artist Grayson Perry; writers Salman Rushdie, Ruth Jones, Elif Shafak, Hanif Kureishi, Robert Harris, Sharon Horgan, Hisham Matar, Abdulrazak Gurnah, Madeleine Thien, Jesse Armstrong, Eimear McBride; journalists Mona Chalabi, Jon Sopel; former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci; National Poet of Wales Hanan Issa; Poet Laureate Simon Armitage; historians Alice Roberts, Anne Applebaum, William Dalrymple, Kehinde Andrews, Tom Holland; children’s favourites Jacqueline Wilson, Julia Donaldson, Cressida Cowell, Katherine Rundell, Liz Pichon; farmer James Rebanks; musicians Paloma Faith, Billy Ocean and Brian Eno; and comedians Miranda Hart, Sara Pascoe, Mark Watson, Katherine Ryan, and Kiri Pritchard-McLean.
Hay Festival Global CEO Julie Finch said:
“Writers, readers, thinkers, dreamers… Over the past 11 days, on stage and off, you have inspired us. We have crossed borders and bridged divides to tackle some of the biggest questions of our times with nuance and expertise, while putting on a world-class show to entertain and connect the next generation of world-changers with culture. As we look ahead to another 12 months of Hay Festival Global activities around the world, we are buoyed up by the collective support for these spaces of free exchange.”
Hay Festival bestsellers (general):
- There are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak
- Autocracy, Inc by Anne Applebaum
- By Your Side by Ruth Jones
- But What Can I Do? by Alastair Campbell
- The Life Impossible by Matt Haig
- Precipice by Robert Harris
- Patriot by Alexei Navalny
- Odyssey by Stephen Fry
- The Siege by Ben Macintyre
- Broken Threads by Mishal Husain
Hay Festival bestsellers (children’s):
- A Home for Spark the Dragon by Michael Sheen
- The Adventures of Rap Kid by MC Grammar
- The Gozzle by Julia Donaldson
- Pocket Shakespeare by Michael Rosen
- Normal Women by Philippa Gregory
- Impossible Creatures by Katherine Rundell
- Donut Squad: Take Over the World by Neill Cameron
- Hamza’s Wild World by Hamza Yassin
- The Seaside Sleepover by Jacqueline Wilson
- Skipshock by Caroline O’Donoghue
New projects woven through the Festival included the daily News Review analysis of the latest events, Hay Festival Sports Day, and Hay Festival Green, prompting innovative solutions to the climate crisis.
Initiatives including the Hay Festival Writers at Work and The Platform opened the Festival stages to emerging artists across Wales and beyond.
Hay Festival Medals were awarded to a trio of changemakers, including Elif Shafak (Prose), Ruth Jones (Drama), and Michael Morpurgo (Fiction), while a special visit from Wales’ First Minister Eluned Morgan spotlighted the Festival’s important role in showcasing culture in Wales.
Late nights at the Festival were given over to great music, comedy and entertainment, while a host of free pop-up activities and performances around the site kept audiences entertained between sessions.
Events took place across eight stages in the redesigned, free-to-enter Festival site at Dairy Meadows – which also offered a range of spaces for audiences to explore and enjoy, including the Bookshop, Wild Garden, Make & Take Tent, a host of exhibitors and market stalls, cafés and restaurants, and the new Family Garden where young readers kick-started their creative journeys – as well as in and around Hay-on-Wye, including performances at St Mary’s Church.
Next up, Hay Festival Global arrives in Kenya for a special collaboration with Nairobi Litfest later this month, while the next Hay Festival After Hours takes plan in Birmingham, UK on Thursday 24 July. Visit hayfestival.org for more.