Hay Festival 2019 Programme

A riveting adventure across thousands of years of Welsh history through 100 physical objects selected by Andrew Green, former National Librarian of Wales. From an iron sword dating back to first century AD Roman rule, to a Laura Ashley dress from the 1980s and Raspberry Pi, the revolutionary coding computer for children first produced in Wales.

This is a fun, hands-on cookery class for children who will learn to make vegetarian Indian street-style snacks from scratch. They will experiment with different spices and use a range of cooking techniques. All ingredients are included and packaging to take away the delicious creations, along with a recipe card to make again at home.

Create your own colourful Christmas lantern to light up the festive season.

£2 for cost of materials

Join Woodland Trust expert Derek Wright on a four-mile walk from Hay to the motte and bailey castle on top of Mousecastle Woods. The walk involves some strenuous uphill sections, and stout shoes are required. It will take two-three hours, depending on stops to talk about the trees, and weather conditions. Numbers are limited.

In his extraordinary travelogue Something of his Art: Walking to Lübeck with J S Bach, Clare recreates the walk that J S Bach, then an unknown composer and organ teacher, made in the depths of winter in 1705 across Germany to Lübeck. This was the pivotal point in the young composer’s life, when he began his journey to becoming the master of the Baroque. Clare’s second 2018 publication is The Light in The Dark: a moving and lyrical evocation of a British winter and the feelings it inspires. The writer raises a torch against the darkness, illuminating the blackest corners of the season, and delving into memory and myth to explore the powerful hold that winter has on us. Chaired by Dylan Moore.

Sledge your way over to meet Santa and his book elves.

This is a fun, hands-on cookery class for children who will learn to make vegetarian Indian street-style snacks from scratch. They will experiment with different spices and use a range of cooking techniques. All ingredients are included and packaging to take away the delicious creations, along with a recipe card to make again at home.

Europe has for two millennia been a remarkably successful continent. Jenkins tells the story of its evolution from a battlefield of warring tribes to peace, wealth and freedom – a story that twists and turns from Greece and Rome, through the Middle Ages, Reformation and French Revolution, to the two World Wars and the present day. He celebrates Europe’s makers – from Julius Caesar and Joan of Arc to Wellington and Angela Merkel, as well as cultural figures from Aristotle to Shakespeare and Picasso. 

Create your own colourful Christmas lantern to light up the festive season.

£2 for cost of materials

Have you always wanted to sing Handel’s Messiah but thought it was too difficult? Then join in our scratch ‘Come and Sing Messiah’ project. A professional concert singer with over 20 years’ experience of working with community choirs, Fiona Evans has rearranged this iconic work to make it more accessible for amateur/timid voices. Following rehearsals today and tomorrow, there will be a public performance in the evening of Sunday 25 November. All welcome.

£5 for Hay Community Choir members, plus cost of score if required - contact Fiona to reserve a place.

This is a fun, hands-on cookery class for children who will learn to make vegetarian Indian street-style snacks from scratch. They will experiment with different spices and use a range of cooking techniques. All ingredients are included and packaging to take away the delicious creations, along with a recipe card to make again at home.

The LBC radio talkshow host provides a hilarious and invigorating guide to talking to people with faulty opinions. With chapters on every lightning-rod issue in current affairs, James tells the stories of the conversations he’s had, explains why people have been fooled into thinking the way they do, and in each case outlines the key questions to ask to reveal fallacies, inconsistencies and double standards. He talks to Rosie Boycott.

O’Brien’s 2018 Christopher Hitchens Lecture is now available on Hay Player.


JAMES WILL ALSO BE TAKING PART IN THE SUNDAY MORNING POLITICS SHOW - EVENT 31, FOR WHICH THERE ARE STILL A FEW TICKETS AVAILABLE.

This is a fun, hands-on cookery class for children who will learn to make vegetarian Indian street-style snacks from scratch. They will experiment with different spices and use a range of cooking techniques. All ingredients are included and packaging to take away the delicious creations, along with a recipe card to make again at home.

There is frost and icicles, mistletoe and sledges. There’s a cat and a dog and a solid silver frog. There’s a Christmas cracker with a surprising gift inside. There’s a haunted house and a SnowMama. The novelist weaves some Yuletide wonder as she reads three enchanting Christmas stories.

The Moon has fascinated humankind since the beginning of history. But far from being just a big rock out in space, it has a phenomenal power over the Earth, with its ability to create great waves, dictate the length of the day and summon the seasons. In this unique celebration of the Moon, lunar expert and space scientist Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock takes readers on a journey through its past, present and future. She uncovers the way it has captured our imaginations, contemplates how it was formed, and explains why we need it to protect our fragile Earth. Drawing on the latest scientific research, she then looks forward – will we return to the Moon or will it become a launch-pad to go into the great unknown?

Writer, poet and musician Gwyneth Glyn presents the live experience of her new album Tro with band members Rowan Rheingans, Dylan Fowler and Gillian Stevens. Tro, Welsh for ‘turn’, is the first major solo album from one of Wales’ most intriguing and talented artists, with a passion for language, who applies her delicate craft and exquisite gift to a compelling new work. Her global influences are subtly felt throughout the layers of this bold album, which explores where Wales meets the world, and where the beautiful nuances and “molasses-sweet tones” (Buzz Magazine) of Gwyneth’s north Walian voice work seamlessly in both Welsh (Gwyneth’s first language) and in English. Gwyneth received a BBC Radio 2 Folk Award 'Best Original Track' nomination earlier this year for 'Cân Y Cŵn' which features on the new album. A Theatr Mwldan Production.