Hundreds of young learners across Wales will enjoy free events at this year’s Hay Festival Winter Weekend, 26-27 November.
The free events bring Primary School children from four state schools in Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales up close to award-winning writers and inspiring creatives for two days of interactive in-person experiences, while free online streams open access to everyone.
The full Hay Festival Winter Weekend programme is out now at hayfestival.org with booking open to Members. General sale begins this Saturday 26 September.
Early Years events on Thursday 26 November feature performances with Laura Dockrill and Petr Horáček alongside workshops in the Make and Take tent; while events on Friday 27 November feature talks from Sophy Henn and Alex Wharton for KS1 children.
In the past year, 7,233 pupils have participated in free schools’ events in person and 11,864 pupils have participated online. The Programme for Schools adds to Hay Festival’s extensive learning and engagement projects that offer free access to young people through schools, universities and youth groups.
Sessions will also be streamed free online, with closed captioning available in Welsh here, and available free after the event on Hay Festival Anytime at hayfestival.org/anytime.
Hay Festival CEO Julie Finch said:
“Hay Festival is a charity for everyone. Our mission is to provide accessible platforms for audiences to engage with culture and exchange new ideas. As recent reports show that Wales continues to fall behind in children’s reading performance, our learning and engagement projects are a critical part of this. We are grateful for The Moondance Foundation who enable our work to continue and thrive. Join us this November!”
Laura Dockrill said:
“This will be my first ever Hay Festival Winter Weekend, Hay is such a special place and I’m looking forward to reading and meeting the children, sharing stories and celebrating the magic of creativity.”
Hay Festival celebrates its 40th spring edition in 2027, Thursday 27 May–6 June.
Hay Festival, one of the world’s leading cultural charities, was founded in Hay-on-Wye, Wales in 1987, providing audiences with dynamic platforms to come together to share ideas, different perspectives and provoke conversations that can create a better world.