Hay Festival

The Hay Festival brings together writers from around the world to debate and share stories at its festival in the staggering beauty of the Welsh Borders.

Hay celebrates great writing from poets and scientists, lyricists and comedians, novelists and environmentalists, and the power of great ideas to transform our way of thinking.

The exchange of views and meeting of minds create and inspire revelations personal, political and educational. Hay is, in Bill Clinton's phrase, 'The Woodstock of the mind'.

Hay Festival was founded around a kitchen table in 1987 and continues to attract the most exciting writers, filmmakers, comedians, politicians and musicians to inspire, delight and entertain.

For 10 days in late May/early June, Hay is full of stories, ideas, laughter and music.

The full programme, approximately 600+ events, is not normally released until the beginning of April; we do, however, release some ‘earlybird’ tickets sooner. These are selected highlights to whet your appetite and will often sell out by the time the full programme is released.

Tickets range from £5 to £40. There are some free events and workshops but these might have a limited capacity so please check event listings for details. Prices for children’s events are kept as low as possible, and there are normally no concessions.