Book a seat in the Relish Festival Restaurant and receive a complimentary drink on us. 

Enjoy a delicious meal from our Festival Restaurant buffet. Choose from a wide selection of hot and cold dishes created fresh onsite by our team of chefs using the best local seasonal produce.

Come up to the buffet and choose as much as you like from all the dishes on offer for just £20 per person. By booking online you will receive a complimentary glass of wine, bottle of beer or soft drink. You will also be able to reserve a seat in the restaurant where our team will be waiting to give you a warm welcome.

Award-winning Alex Gooch breads and water are free for every customer.

A selection of desserts and local cheeses from Neal's Yard Creamery is also available, plus a full bar and barista coffees.

See a Sample Menu Here

As Greek finance minister, Varoufakis confronted the EU head-on over debt. He tells a tale of brinkmanship, hypocrisy, collusion and betrayal, and he issues an urgent call to renew European democracy.

Baroness Warsi’s book The Enemy Within identifies British Muslims as the latest in a long line of ‘others’ to be feared and demonised. The UK’s first Muslim cabinet minister explores questions of cultural difference, terrorism, surveillance, social justice, religious freedom, integration and the meaning of  ‘British values’ with Helena Kennedy. She proffers necessary and inconvenient truths and proposes new ways forward for British Muslims, politicians and society.

The new novel about modern family lives by the author of Everything Is Illuminated and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. “Jacob and Julia Bloch are about to be tested: By Jacob’s grandfather, who won’t go quietly into a retirement home. By the family reunion, that everyone is dreading. By their son’s heroic attempts to get expelled. And by the sexting affair that will rock their marriage…"

Keggie Carew grew up under the spell of an unorthodox, enigmatic father. An undercover guerrilla agent during the Second World War, in peacetime he lived on his wits and dazzling charm. But these were not always enough to sustain a family. As his memory began to fail, Keggie embarked on a quest to unravel his story once and for all. Dadland won the Costa biography award.  It is funny and tender and utterly captivating.

These three conditions impose great costs on individuals and society. Dame Carol Black’s independent government review examines the challenges and the data; and she makes recommendations that could improve the lives of those affected.

Writers and historians join New Generation Thinker Catherine Fletcher for a discussion recorded for Radio 3’s Arts and Ideas programme. Colm Tóibín’s new novel House of Names explores the story of Clytemnestra and the murder of her husband Agamemnon.  Paul Cartledge is A. G. Leventis Professor of Greek Culture Emeritus at the University of Cambridge and the author of many books that look at the classical world including Ancient Greece: A Very Short Introduction; Ancient Greece: A History in Eleven Cities and Democracy: A Life. Bettany Hughes has presented many TV and Radio programmes exploring the classical world. Her books include Helen of Troy: Goddess, Princess, Whore; The Hemlock Cup and Istanbul: A Tale of Three Cities.

To be broadcast on Tuesday 30 May at 10PM on BBC Radio 3 and available as an Arts and Ideas download

The first of four recitals broadcast live from Hay this week. Mozart’s Andante in C, K315 and Rondo in D, KAnh 184; CPE Bach’s Flute Sonata in G, H550 (Hamburger); Schubert’s Introduction and Variations on Trockne Blumen D802. Concert introduced by Clemency Burton-Hill.

Recorded for Broadcast on BBC Radio 3.

Told over the course of one school day in 1970s Washington DC, New Boy is Tracy Chevalier’s take on Othello. It is a powerful modern drama about fitting in, standing out and knowing which friends to trust, from one of our most successful novelists. Tracy will be in conversation with Claire Armitstead.

 #HAYYA

The comedian, actor and writer introduces his debut story about a little girl who gets lost in time. Learn what inspired him to write it and help him to create a time machine in this fun-filled interactive event.

Learn how to silk-screen print with locally based and internationally acclaimed textile designers Sunny and Emma Todd. Their bold, graphic artwork is stocked in Liberty, Heal’s, Le Bon Marché, Amara and Anthropologie. Sunny is also a textiles lecturer at Hereford College of Arts. Create your own one-off stencil and screenprint it onto a canvas bag for you to take away (Fairtrade and UK-produced).

In this workshop we’ll take a look at how our own bias changes our perception and assess how good we are at spotting fake news in our teeny tiny Trump hands interactive quiz. We'll also take a look at the different techniques journalists use to sell a story and learn to weave some of the dark arts of Spin ourselves. Malevolence, while not required, will be highly prized.

Get seriously messy with Jon Williams from Herefordshire’s Eastnor Pottery. You will see pottery demonstrations and  create your own sculptural masterpieces to add to our forest critters’ colony or take home...or both. One thing’s for sure...mud will fly!

Book a seat in the Relish Festival Restaurant and receive a complimentary drink on us. 

Enjoy a delicious meal from our Festival Restaurant buffet. Choose from a wide selection of hot and cold dishes created fresh onsite by our team of chefs using the best local seasonal produce.

Come up to the buffet and choose as much as you like from all the dishes on offer for just £20 per person. By booking online you will receive a complimentary glass of wine, bottle of beer or soft drink. You will also be able to reserve a seat in the restaurant where our team will be waiting to give you a warm welcome.

Award-winning Alex Gooch breads and water are free for every customer.

A selection of desserts and local cheeses from Neal's Yard Creamery is also available, plus a full bar and barista coffees.

See a Sample Menu Here

In a world of broken institutions and failing states, of corrupted democracies and of post-truth politicians; in a world of fake news, faith schools and fundamentalism, we need a rational and humane voice. We need a new Enlightenment. Where do we start?

A medieval centre of learning, Hay’s twin-town was home to tens of thousands of ancient manuscripts on subjects ranging from religion to poetry, law to history, pharmacology to astronomy. When al-Qaeda–linked jihadists surged across Mali in 2012, a remarkable thing happened: a team of librarians and archivists joined forces to spirit the manuscripts into hiding. This is their story. Chaired by Francine Stock.

Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz is a Professor of Mammalian Development and Stem Cell Biology. Her passion lies in understanding how cells decide their fate for the very first time and how embryos build their architecture. This passion allowed her and her team to reveal the remarkable self-organising properties of human embryos, pioneering the way for future studies of human and mouse embryogenesis. She created a technique that almost doubles the time scientists can culture human embryos in the lab so they can study the beginnings of human life. It raises ethical issues about research on embryos and when an embryo becomes a human. Chaired by Dan Davis.

Bragg’s novel is a hymn both to the landscape of Cumbria and to a disappearing farming world. Poetic, beautiful and tragic, it gives an account of the struggle to preserve traditions and beliefs in the face of change. It is a quietly bold indictment of the treatment of generations of British men, and an assertion of the power to be found in the rituals we pass down through our families. She talks to the poet, academic and former Archbishop of Canterbury.

The renowned surgeon will talk about his most recent experiences on the frontline in Aleppo and how his roots in west Wales shaped his life. Born in Carmarthen, Nott is famous for his work in disaster and war zones the world over, including Syria, Afghanistan, Gaza and Iraq. Hedelivers the sixth annual Welsh affairs lecture dedicated to the late BBC Wales broadcaster.

Broadcast on Monday 29 May at 6.30PM on BBC Radio Wales

Leaving her garden to the mercy of the slugs, award-winning writer Alys Fowler set out in an inflatable kayak to explore Birmingham’s canal network, full of little-used waterways where huge pike skulk and kingfishers dart. Her memoir is about noticing the wild everywhere and what it means to see beauty where you least expect it. What happens when someone who has learned to observe her external world in such detail decides to examine her internal world with the same care? Chaired by Lucy Cotter.

Join the acclaimed actress and anthologist for a sizzling reading of some of the joyous, magical and humorous poems from her anthology. In a dazzling display of poetry, the show journeys through a calendar year, with poems celebrating events such as Martin Luther King Day and the first day of Spring before ending with Michael Rosen’s The Car Trip.
Sir Tony Robinson and Beatie Edney of Poldark will be performing alongside Allie Esiri.

Chris Riddell will be live drawing the event. Tony Robinson and Beatie Edney will be performing poems. 

Come and enjoy a dramatic reading with the author/illustrator of the hilarious story about the Prince, his Pants and how they all go missing. Join in an interactive drawing session where you can share your ideas about the Prince and what might have happened to his pants.

Drop in writing sessions to create a collaborative poem, with different themes every day. Come and explore your creativity with Emma Beynon, who has a wealth of experience running creative writing workshops and has an infectious approach to building a story. Emma is currently writing a novel based on her sailing adventures in Svalbard and her educational writing includes Making Poetry Happen (Bloomsbury, 2015).

Learn how to silk-screen print with locally based and internationally acclaimed textile designers Sunny and Emma Todd. Their bold, graphic artwork is stocked in Liberty, Heal’s, Le Bon Marché, Amara and Anthropologie. Sunny is also a textiles lecturer at Hereford College of Arts. Create your own one-off stencil and screenprint it onto a canvas bag for you to take away (Fairtrade and UK-produced).

Please drop in to our new Compass venue, quiz leading academics about their subject and engage in some critical thinking. As part of Hay Festival 2016 and with help from the Welsh Government we have invited a range of university lecturers and speakers to drop in, talk about their subject areas and about university life.

Carol Black is Principal of Newnham College, University of Cambridge.