Hay Festival has today announced the full programme for its 10th edition in Querétaro, Mexico, taking place 4–7 September 2025.
Discover more and book events now here.
Launching the best new fiction and non-fiction, while engaging with the world’s biggest challenges, the programme crosses borders with Nobel laureates, award-winning writers and journalists, global policy makers and innovators in conversations and activities.
More than 150 artists from 17 countries feature across the line-up, including actor Diego Luna; writers Deborah Levy, V. V. Ganeshananthan, Valeria Luiselli, Pankaj Mishra; journalists Carmen Aristegui, John Vaillant; architect Tatiana Bilbao; food writer Andi Oliver; broadcaster Miquita Oliver; musicians Neneh Cherry and Kevin Johansen; artist Liniers; and more.
Leading the programme is Constelaciones Hay Festival – a special anniversary project formed of 10 intergenerational conversations between established thinkers and emerging stars in their respective disciplines.
Other major Hay Festival Global projects form key event strands, including the South to South conversations, Lviv BookForum collaboration and Eccles Institute partnerships, featuring through the programme, forging essential global connections across borders.
Outreach and education programmes across the region, including Hay Festival Joven for young people and Hay Festival Communitario in communities, will continue to open access to Festival inspiration more widely, while some sessions will be broadcast live online, maintaining Hay Festival Global’s commitment to digital accessibility.
Querétaro itself offers a majestic backdrop for events as the World Heritage City hosts sessions all over the city’s cultural venues and universities. And for the first year, in collaboration with Harmony and Inclusion, Hay Festival Querétaro will offer interpretation in sign language in three activities.
Hay Festival Global CEO Julie Finch said:
“At a time of global upheaval we’re convening artists, thinkers and dreamers to investigate our shared problems and help us imagine a better world in Mexico this September. This 10th anniversary programme pairs new perspectives with expertise and experience to inspire and entertain. Join us.”
Hay Festival Global international director Cristina Fuentes La Roche said:
“With award-winning writers, inspiring world changers, and the best audience, Hay Festival Querétaro 2025 will be a marker for a better future. By embracing creativity and complexity, we want our Festivalgoers to feel empowered to see the world from a new perspective. We are grateful to the artists, partners and supporters who make this happen and look forward to seeing you all soon.”
The programme in detail
Constelaciones Hay Festival (Hay Festival Constellations) marks 10 years of Hay Festival in Querétaro, Mexico, with a series of intergenerational conversations between established thinkers and emerging stars in their respective disciplines: activism with Diego Luna, archaeology with Eduardo Matos Moctezuma and Patricia Ledesma, architecture with Tatiana Bilbao, science with Julieta Fierro and Leticia Carigi, film with Ilse Salas, illustration with Jis, Trino, and 2 Diablos, literature with Juan Villoro and Aura García-Junco, music with Joselo Rangel and Lázaro Cristóbal Comala, journalism with Carmen Aristegui, and poetry with Mardonio Carballo and Alejandra Sasil Sánchez Chan.
Great literature is showcased as renowned writers from around the world share new work, including Juan Villoro, Guillermo, Valeria Luiselli, Ricardo Giraldo, Leonardo Heiblum, Juan Gabriel Vásquez, Piedad Bonnett, Paulina Flores, Mariana Salomão Carrara, Deborah Levy, Rebecca Makkai, Mar García Puig, José Luís Peixoto and Olivia Rosenthal, Alma Delia Murillo, Fernando Benavides, Ricardo Raphael, Marina Azahua, Elvira Liceaga, Verónica E. Llaca, Brenda Navarro, Eduardo Rabasa, Hiram Ruvalcaba, Tania Tagle, and Alberto Villarreal, while Selma Dabbagh and Elisa Díaz Castelo take part in a special literary pairings discussion, and Javier Peña and Julián Herbert form the duo for Cuadernos Hispanoamericanos, a transatlantic dialogue between authors.
Rhythm and wordplay weave their way across the Festival stages in events including poet Elvira Sastre, while there’s music with two free outdoor concerts at Jardín Guerrero, featuring Kevin Johansen and Liniers, and Playa Limbo.
World-famous musicians share insights into their craft in conversations featuring the former drummer of The Cure, Lol Tolhurst; Swedish singer and rapper Neneh Cherry; Joe Boyd, the producer of hits for R.E.M. Nick Drake and Pink Floyd; teacher Ramón Gener talks opera; and Simon Reynolds, Cha!, and Sopitas discuss their work.
Democracy and current affairs come under the spotlight in the South to North Conversations, while political tensions and contemporary challenges will be analysed by novelist Pankaj Mishra and lawyers Reed Brody and Selma Dabbagh.
Relations with the US are interrogated in conversations with journalists Alan Riding, Alma Guillermoprieto, and John Vaillant, while broader geopolitical questions are explored by international relations specialist Pedro Baños, writer Michel Nieva, journalists Sonia Faleiro and Liliana Viola, novelist V V Ganeshananthan, and tech writer Andrea Rizzi.
Mexico today takes the focus in a special conversation between Yadira González, Alma Delia Murillo, and Mirna Nereida, while journalist Nacho Lozano looks to rethink masculinity and gender equality in conversations with writers Bibiana Collado and Fatima Ouassak, entrepreneur Linda Kamau, and Tamara Tenenbau, who presents a reinterpretation of A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf.
Conversations with leading scientists and environmentalists help us reset our relationship with the natural world, including biologist Andrés Cota Hiriart and creative researcher Mariana Matija, while indigenous languages are the spotlight in discussions featuring Marina Azahua, Mardonio Carballo, Jemima Peláez and Héctor Guerrero.
And a special focus on food sees British food writer Andi Oliver join forces with her daughter and broadcaster Miquita Oliver for a one-off event on the joy of eating.
Hay Festival Communitario offers free conversations, workshops, and activities aimed at young people and families in the seven boroughs of Querétaro, featuring artists and writers Tere Alcántara, Adolfo Córdova, Ana Grimaldo, Edgar David Aguilera, and Alfredo Rodríguez Karmix, Braulio Guerra Mendoza, Gina Jaramillo, Rebeca Mendoza, Nacho Lozano, Jemima Peláez, Sens, and Rafael Volta, among others.
Hay Festival Joven – free events for students – takes place across the campuses of UAQ, UNAM Juriquilla, TEC de Monterrey, and Anáhuac universities, featuring Marina Azahua, Reed Brody, Mar García Puig, Michel Nieva, Jumko Ogata, Simon Reynolds, Mariela Sancari, Tamara Tenenbaum, Juan Gabriel Vásquez, and Liliana Viola.
Talento Editorial is the professional gathering open to the public focused on the book industry, comprised of two panels: one dedicated to independent publishing houses, with Francisco Llorca (Las Afueras, Spain), Edgard Trevizo (Medusa Editores, Mexico), and Luis Sandoval of Mishin Ediciones (Querétaro, Mexico); and another on literary podcasts, with Nena Mounstro (Chismecito literario) and Javier Peña (Grandes infelices).