Green

Discover how to make your garden successful, whatever your abilities, and how to combine colours and pots for instant impact, from gardeners Sue Kent and Sarah Raven. Gardeners’ World presenter Kent is an RHS disability ambassador and RHS award-winning garden designer. Her book Sue Kent Garden Notes provides tips and tricks to successful gardening for all abilities. Gardener, cook and podcaster Sarah Raven’s A Year Full of Pots: Container Flowers for All Seasons demonstrates how accessible and satisfying growing flowers in pots can be.

In May 2016, Fort McMurray, Alberta, the hub of Canada’s oil industry, was overrun by wildfire. It was a multi-billion-dollar disaster that drove 88,000 people from their homes. Canadian writer and journalist John Vaillant talks to author Katherine Rundell about how we must prepare for a hotter, more flammable world. In Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World (winner of the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction 2023) Vaillant delves into the intertwined histories of the oil industry and climate science, the unprecedented devastation wrought by modern wildfires and the lives forever changed by these disasters.

Two experts on green capitalism discuss its limits and possibilities with Bronwyn Wake, Editor in Chief of Nature Climate Change. Rathi is an award-winning senior reporter for Bloomberg News and host of climate podcast Zero. In Climate Capitalism: Winning the Global Race to Zero Emissions he looks at stories that bring people, policy and technology together, suggesting that the green economy is not only possible, but profitable. Dr Ritchie is senior researcher in the Programme for Global Development at the University of Oxford, as well as deputy editor and lead researcher at the highly influential online publication Our World in Data, which brings together the latest data and research on the world’s largest problems and makes it accessible for a general audience. Her latest book is Not the End of the World: How We Can be the First Generation to Build a Sustainable Planet.

The host of The Repair Shop shares his inspirational words for making the very best of life. With characteristic warmth and humour, he talks about the life lessons that have helped him to find positivity and growth, no matter what he’s found himself facing. “It’s very easy to be passive in life and just do what you know. But you’ll be a lot more excited every day if you shape your own future.” After leaving school at 15 without qualifications, Blades eventually managed to study for a degree in criminology and philosophy at Buckingham University before finding his vocation in restoration. He is co-founder of the social enterprises Out of the Dark and Street of Dreams, working with disadvantaged young people.

Take a walk to the River Wye with poet, performer and Canal Laureate Roy McFarlane. Learn to use the river and its surrounding area as inspiration and to explore or unravel your own personal stories in this creative writing session. We meet at the Wild Garden on the Festival site and set off on a short walk to the river and back, returning to the Exchange Marquee on site to reflect and write with McFarlane after the walk.

McFarlane has been Birmingham’s Poet Laureate and the Birmingham & Midland Institute’s Poet in Residence. His books include Living by Troubled Waters and The Healing Next Time.

Start your day with an hour of yoga blending movement, mantra, meditation and breathwork. The classes support detoxification and regeneration – physically, emotionally and spiritually. Our daily yoga classes are brought to you by a collective of ten highly skilled practitioners, all local to Hay-on-Wye. Each practitioner has their own style, but with all you can expect a mindful, student-focused practice with clear cueing and functional sequencing.

Whether you need grounding and recharging before a busy day at the Festival, an opportunity to stretch and move your body, or simply an hour to focus on your breathing, these classes are open and accessible to all. Practitioners will adapt to different levels of experience, providing options for deepening or softening within poses so that each student takes what they need from the practice. Beginners and experienced students are most welcome. Yoga mats are provided.

Please contact Clare Fry at hello@larchwoodstudio.com with any questions relating to these classes. As capacity is limited, we recommend booking in advance to avoid disappointment.

Helen and John Price and the next generation, Rhiannon and Humphrey Wells, open the gates to their farm for a visit led by agronomist Jonathon Harrington and vet Barney Sampson. This traditional family farm is adapting to meet the challenges of a new era to build a sustainable future for food production. Learn about the choices they face relating to soil and the environment, livestock and climate change, and their plans to be carbon negative within the next three to five years. See cattle and sheep and the crops that are grown to feed them, and taste beef from the farm served in bread rolls at the end of the visit.

With thanks to Helen & John Price and Rhiannon & Humphrey Wells for welcoming us to their farm.

How can we live the lives we want without despoiling the environment we hold so dear? How do we balance the competing demands of public access, farming and wildlife against the backdrop of the climate and nature crises?

Tayshan Hayden-Smith, former professional footballer turned guerrilla gardener, Kate Humble, farmer and TV presenter, Megan McCubbin, conservationist and wildlife presenter on BBC2’s Springwatch, and Paul Whitehouse, actor, writer and comedian, talk to the Chair of the National Trust, René Olivieri, about how we rediscover the power of connection with nature.

Guides from the Bannau Brycheiniog National Park lead a walk through the beautiful surrounds of Hay-on-Wye. Local experts give their insights into this treasured landscape.

Hay-on-Wye is based within 520 square miles of beautiful landscape that makes up the Bannau Brycheiniog National Park. The National Park is driving change to bring about a sustainable future, meeting our needs within planetary boundaries. Their Hay Festival series of walks take you into the town’s local environment while offering the opportunity to learn more about the Park’s work and its treasured landscape.

Our panel discusses Wales’ global responsibility to tackle climate change, the effects of climate change on Wales’ population and what Wales can do to reach net zero by 2035. The panellists are all drawn from a group commissioned by Welsh Government and Plaid Cymru. They share their evidence gathering processes, findings and draft pathways – probing questions will be welcome, as well as your opinions on the developed pathways.

Bunting is Professor of Civil Engineering, Morrow is Professor of Environmental Law and Rudd is Senior Lecturer in Business Innovation and Engagement, all at Swansea University. Powell is a Sustainable Development Programme Manager for Public Health Wales. Townsend is Secretary for the Wales Net Zero 2035 Challenge Group.

Growing plants, whether inside or outside, can foster feelings of happiness and bring people together. Community gardener and designer Tayshan Hayden-Smith and writer Alan Heeks discuss the importance of greenery of all kinds. Hayden-Smith’s Small Space Revolution: Planting Seeds of Change in Your Community sets out his blueprint for why we need to green more outdoor spaces and the practical steps we can all take to do so in our home or community. Heeks’ Natural Happiness shows how gardening methods like composting, mulching, and crop rotation can be used to cultivate human nature too.

The food production experts talk to science presenter Kate Humble. Could cultivated meat from stem-cells grown in a bioreactor beat climate change? Provide real meat but without the slaughter? Cultivated Meat to Secure Our Future: Hope for Animals, Food Security, and the Environment, co-edited by Philip Lymbery, argues that it could be a game-changer in reducing animal suffering and helping solve the growing crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss, and the rise of ill-health. Ed Winters demonstrates How to Argue With a Meat Eater (and Win Every Time), explaining the principles of veganism as a way to create a more ethical, kind and sustainable world, and breaking down every argument used against it.

Start your day with an hour of yoga blending movement, mantra, meditation and breathwork. The classes support detoxification and regeneration – physically, emotionally and spiritually. Our daily yoga classes are brought to you by a collective of ten highly skilled practitioners, all local to Hay-on-Wye. Each practitioner has their own style, but with all you can expect a mindful, student-focused practice with clear cueing and functional sequencing.

Whether you need grounding and recharging before a busy day at the Festival, an opportunity to stretch and move your body, or simply an hour to focus on your breathing, these classes are open and accessible to all. Practitioners will adapt to different levels of experience, providing options for deepening or softening within poses so that each student takes what they need from the practice. Beginners and experienced students are most welcome. Yoga mats are provided.

Please contact Clare Fry at hello@larchwoodstudio.com with any questions relating to these classes. As capacity is limited, we recommend booking in advance to avoid disappointment.

A guide from the Bannau Brycheiniog National Park leads a walk through the beautiful surrounds of Hay-on-Wye. A local expert gives insights into this treasured landscape.

Hay-on-Wye is based within 520 square miles of beautiful landscape that makes up the Bannau Brycheiniog National Park. The National Park is driving change to bring about a sustainable future, meeting our needs within planetary boundaries. Their Hay Festival series of walks take you into the town’s local environment while offering the opportunity to learn more about the Park’s work and its treasured landscape.

Ideas and stories are limitless: our planet’s resources are not. The combined climate, biodiversity and nature emergencies are an existential threat to us all. So we all have a responsibility to help find solutions. Throughout Hay Festival we invite participants to contribute their ideas and concerns and to help build a combined mobilisation message for the future. Today we launch that message, encouraging everyone to be part of the change needed to secure a safe outcome for future generations.

Actor Julian Rhind-Tutt has appeared in Green Wing, Notting Hill and The Witcher. Documentary filmmaker Jack Harries is co-founder of Earthrise Studio. Environmental activist Jane Davidson is the former Welsh Government minister for Education, Environment and Sustainability. In conversation with Nicola Cutcher, investigative journalist, documentary maker, and freelance writer.

The botanist draws on her expertise and experience as an indigenous woman to show how other living beings offer us gifts and lessons, even if we’ve forgotten how to hear their voices. Her subjects range from the Native American legend of the Skywoman to the language of wild strawberries and squash, asters and goldenrod, algae and sweetgrass. Her collection of essays weaves together traditional ecological knowledge and scientific knowledge to examine the relationship people have, and can have, with the living environment. Kimmerer lives in New York where she is founder and director of the Centre for Native Peoples and the Environment. She talks about her book Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants with farmer and author James Rebanks.

The world’s human population acquires two thirds of its calories from just three crops, each with one harvest in each hemisphere. With a burgeoning population, cities spreading onto productive agricultural land and climate change, the area we have for producing food is steadily declining. So where will we grow our food and what will it look like? Will we go vegan or produce all our food organically?

Agronomist Jonathon Harrington (Cardiff University) leads a discussion with three world authorities, Professor Tina Barsby (University of Cambridge), Professor Denis Murphy (University of South Wales), and International Agricultural Economist Graham Brookes, on this essential subject. Join the experts to hear the scale of the issues and then come together to workshop some solutions.

What can the history of slave revolts teach us about the power of rebellion to tackle the climate crisis? How might understanding the origins of capitalism spark ideas for bringing AI under control? What could we learn from the coffee houses of Georgian London to tame social media? Social philosopher Roman Krznaric looks at 1,000 years of history to help us confront the challenges of the 21st century, from bridging the inequality gap and reducing the risks of genetic engineering, to reviving our faith in democracy and avoiding ecological collapse.

Start your day with an hour of yoga blending movement, mantra, meditation and breathwork. The classes support detoxification and regeneration – physically, emotionally and spiritually. Our daily yoga classes are brought to you by a collective of ten highly skilled practitioners, all local to Hay-on-Wye. Each practitioner has their own style, but with all you can expect a mindful, student-focused practice with clear cueing and functional sequencing.

Whether you need grounding and recharging before a busy day at the Festival, an opportunity to stretch and move your body, or simply an hour to focus on your breathing, these classes are open and accessible to all. Practitioners will adapt to different levels of experience, providing options for deepening or softening within poses so that each student takes what they need from the practice. Beginners and experienced students are most welcome. Yoga mats are provided.

Please contact Clare Fry at hello@larchwoodstudio.com with any questions relating to these classes. As capacity is limited, we recommend booking in advance to avoid disappointment.

Come for a wild swim in the Wye with adventure and wild swimming specialist Angela Jones. The author of Wild Swimming the River Wye is passionate about protecting and respecting the river, its environment and wildlife. She shows how to engage in wild swimming with love and respect, testing the water for cleanliness and observing when it’s safe, before leading a guided wild swim session. Beginners and seasoned swimmers alike will gain a wealth of knowledge, including tips on acclimation, water safety, equipment, technique, reading the river and undercurrents.

You will meet Angela on the banks of the river at By the Wye Glamping Site, HR3 5RS, located just past the main bridge into Hay on the B4351
(What3Words : lifestyle.waving.cavalier).

The session starts at 10am and ends at 12pm at the river.

There is no parking at the swim site, please park in one of the designated car parks around town.

A warden from the Bannau Brycheiniog National Park leads a walk through the beautiful surrounds of Hay-on-Wye. A local expert gives insights into this treasured landscape.

Hay-on-Wye is based within 520 square miles of beautiful landscape that makes up the Bannau Brycheiniog National Park. The National Park is driving change to bring about a sustainable future, meeting our needs within planetary boundaries. Their Hay Festival series of walks take you into the town’s local environment while offering the opportunity to learn more about the Park’s work and its treasured landscape.

Why might an orangutan care which toothpaste you choose? What does your mobile phone have to do with wind turbines? And can your morning coffee really power a bus? Economics affects every aspect of our lives and there are huge changes afoot as the global green revolution speeds up. Dharshini David, Chief Economics Correspondent for BBC News, reveals the green changes already taking place in every aspect of our world, from sustainable materials and corporate greenwashing to industrialisation and global trade wars. David explores the industries of energy, food, fashion, technology, manufacturing and finance, showing how the smallest details in our day can tell a bigger economic story.

With a career in fashion spanning nearly two decades Patrick Grant has a lot to say about our clothing, who makes it and how it’s made. Less: Stop Buying So Much Rubbish is a passionate and revealing book about loving clothes but despairing of a broken global system. Patrick explains the crisis of consumption and quality in fashion, and how we might make ourselves happier by rediscovering the joy of living with fewer, better quality things.

Wildlife and ecosystems across the globe face enormous threats, but identifying conservation priorities and approaches poses many challenging questions. How do we balance the desire to protect threatened wildlife species with the needs of human populations? Who decides? Join a conversation between the Head of Aberystwyth University’s School of Veterinary Science, Professor Darrell Abernethy, and a representative from the World Wildlife Federation to explore how some of the world’s most treasured species are being impacted by human activities and natural crises.

How can humans divert from ecological destruction and climate breakdown to ensure an environment in which all life can flourish? Ethicist Melanie Challenger, deputy co-chair of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics and vice president of the RSPCA, has some of the answers. She discusses the meaning of animal dignity, and how contributors to the essay collection Animal Dignity offer interpretations rooted in science, conservation and agriculture, as well as morality, philosophy and the personal.

Celebrate the ways in which storytelling can tackle the climate crisis with the official launch of the Climate Fiction Prize. The Prize aims to showcase novels of powerful literary merit and to solidify climate fiction as a genre in its own right, as well as inspire new narratives. In the prize’s inaugural year, judges Nicola Chester (author of On Gallows Down), Andy Fryers (Hay Festival Sustainability Director) and Tori Tsui (climate justice activist and writer) speak to writer and journalist Madeleine Bunting, the Chair of Judges. Their discussion explores the ways in which fiction enables society to comprehend the impacts of climate change and manifest responses to combat apathy and doomism. The Prize is supported by Climate Spring, an organisation using the power of storytelling to change the narrative on the climate crisis.