Events for Children and Young People

Come to the Family Garden for a pizza masterclass with Kitchen Garden Pizza. In this one-hour session your imagination and creativity will be fed along with your belly! You’ll get your hands messy with freshly grown and foraged ingredients, make and top your own dough and observe the pizzaioli at work at the wood-fired oven.

Dairy-free and gluten-free options available.

Come to the Family Garden for a pizza masterclass with Kitchen Garden Pizza. In this one-hour session your imagination and creativity will be fed along with your belly! You’ll get your hands messy with freshly grown and foraged ingredients, make and top your own dough and observe the pizzaioli at work at the wood-fired oven.

Dairy-free and gluten-free options available.

Come to the Family Garden for a pizza masterclass with Kitchen Garden Pizza. In this one-hour session your imagination and creativity will be fed along with your belly! You’ll get your hands messy with freshly grown and foraged ingredients, make and top your own dough and observe the pizzaioli at work at the wood-fired oven.

Dairy-free and gluten-free options available.

Come to the Family Garden for a pizza masterclass with Kitchen Garden Pizza. In this one-hour session your imagination and creativity will be fed along with your belly! You’ll get your hands messy with freshly grown and foraged ingredients, make and top your own dough and observe the pizzaioli at work at the wood-fired oven.

Dairy-free and gluten-free options available.

Enter the prehistoric world with children’s TV superstar Andy Day and bestselling illustrator Steven Lenton on a fantastic magical dino-tastic adventure! Get ready to sing, draw, laugh and learn about some incredible dinosaurs – and hear about Andy’s new book series Dino Dad, illustrated by Steven: a laugh-out-loud adventure about Ruby and her dinosaur expert dad who has a magic ammonite shell which takes them to an incredible island, full of dinosaurs.

Please bring your own sketchbook and pencils to this event.

Get your Hay day off to a brilliant start with our daily Ready, Steady, Music workshops! With different activities each day, these interactive, fun-filled sessions for mini musicians and their grown-ups will have you tapping sticks, roaring like dinosaurs, flying with unicorns, dancing with scarves, playing with parachutes and so much more. Come and meet our puppets, explore our range of instruments and listen to the beautiful sound of the cello.

Captivating young imaginations and creating lasting memories, these sessions offer a unique musical adventure. The perfect way to boost wellbeing, increase confidence, spark creativity and introduce children to the joy of music.

Come to the Family Garden for a pizza masterclass with Kitchen Garden Pizza. In this one-hour session your imagination and creativity will be fed along with your belly! You’ll get your hands messy with freshly grown and foraged ingredients, make and top your own dough and observe the pizzaioli at work at the wood-fired oven.

Dairy-free and gluten-free options available.

Come to the Family Garden for a pizza masterclass with Kitchen Garden Pizza. In this one-hour session your imagination and creativity will be fed along with your belly! You’ll get your hands messy with freshly grown and foraged ingredients, make and top your own dough and observe the pizzaioli at work at the wood-fired oven.

Dairy-free and gluten-free options available.

Two powerhouses of children’s literature captivate in this creative event bringing William Shakespeare’s work to life with the help of some special guests. Poet Michael Rosen and illustrator Chris Riddell, both former children’s laureates, have collaborated on Pocket Shakespeare: A Beginner’s Guide to the Best Bits of the Bard, a celebration of the words of Shakespeare.

In this event, Rosen will guide the audience through the Bard’s exploration of love, heartbreak, magic, superstition and more, including insults and one-liners, accompanied by Riddell, who’ll draw live on stage.

Does your little one collect something? Join author/illustrator Bethan Woollvin for a craft workshop based on These Are My Rocks, a story about collecting. Children will enjoy a hilarious reading of this interactive book, explore fun collections and oddities from around the world and then craft their own unique collection.

Come to the Family Garden for a pizza masterclass with Kitchen Garden Pizza. In this one-hour session your imagination and creativity will be fed along with your belly! You’ll get your hands messy with freshly grown and foraged ingredients, make and top your own dough and observe the pizzaioli at work at the wood-fired oven.

Dairy-free and gluten-free options available.

Philippa Gregory’s bestselling Normal Women has been adapted for teens! Join the international blockbuster author of The Other Boleyn Girl as she redefines the story of ordinary English women and asks why they are missing from 900 years of history. Hear some fascinating stories of highwaywomen, pirates, soldiers, inventors and rioters in this lively and interactive event.

The nation’s favourite storyteller, Michael Morpurgo, discusses his new book Cobweb with Children’s Laureate Frank Cottrell-Boyce. Cobweb is a powerful, moving adventure inspired by the extraordinary true story of the French Drummer Boy of Waterloo; a stunning tale of courage and kindness – a book about the bond between a girl and her beloved dog, about humanity, animals and the heartbreak of war.

Does your little one collect something? Join author/illustrator Bethan Woollvin for a craft workshop based on These Are My Rocks, a story about collecting. Children will enjoy a hilarious reading of this interactive book, explore fun collections and oddities from around the world and then craft their own unique collection.

Drop the mic! Award-winning teacher, Sky Kids superstar, World Book Day ambassador and viral book-rapping sensation MC Grammar heads to Hay to introduce his brand-new series, The Adventures of Rap Kid.

Get ready to meet Z, his beatboxing sidekick SFX, their super-slick teacher Mr G, and his dawg Pup Smoke, in a story about friendship, the power of words and finding your voice.

Grab your bling and your shades and make your way to this epic event jam-packed with jokes, bangin' tunes, wicked rhymes, a sick rap battle, and the greatest dance-off of all time!

Join the author of The Rachel Incident and All Our Hidden Gifts, Caroline O’Donoghue, to hear about her new fantasy romance with a sci-fi twist, Skipshock. When Margo boards a train to her new school, she could never have expected a time slip into the chill of an alien winter. Margo and Moon were on two different trains, in two different worlds. They never should have met – but they did. And now they are running out of time. Will Margo manage to find a way home, or will she choose to stay in a world where she may have found the only person with whom she would choose to spend eternity?

Caroline’s The Rachel Incident is being adapted for television by Universal Studios, and her hit podcast Sentimental Garbage has had over 9 million downloads worldwide.

Please bring your own notebook and pen to this event.

Come to the Family Garden for a pizza masterclass with Kitchen Garden Pizza. In this one-hour session your imagination and creativity will be fed along with your belly! You’ll get your hands messy with freshly grown and foraged ingredients, make and top your own dough and observe the pizzaioli at work at the wood-fired oven.

Dairy-free and gluten-free options available.

Award-winning historian and broadcaster Professor David Olusoga and Lecturer in Education Dr Yinka Olusoga introduce their book Black History for Every Day of the Year. This unique and vital celebration of Black history travels across the world from ancient times to the modern day.

Meet well-known figures and unsung heroes, learn about famous and lesser-known key cultural moments in history, sport, science, activism, music and more. Hear stories of hope, connection and creativity, alongside tales of racism, resistance and celebration – from the nineteenth century anti-slavery movement to World Wars I and II, to the Harlem Renaissance, Stormzy, Simone Biles and beyond. With an accessible story for every day of the year, here is a rich history that is relevant to us all.

Come to the Family Garden for a pizza masterclass with Kitchen Garden Pizza. In this one-hour session your imagination and creativity will be fed along with your belly! You’ll get your hands messy with freshly grown and foraged ingredients, make and top your own dough and observe the pizzaioli at work at the wood-fired oven.

Dairy-free and gluten-free options available.

Come to the Family Garden for a pizza masterclass with Kitchen Garden Pizza. In this one-hour session your imagination and creativity will be fed along with your belly! You’ll get your hands messy with freshly grown and foraged ingredients, make and top your own dough and observe the pizzaioli at work at the wood-fired oven.

Dairy-free and gluten-free options available.

We’re going on a bear hunt. We’re going to catch a big one. Will you come too? For a quarter of a century, readers have been swishy-swashying and splash-sploshing through this award-winning classic. Follow household favourite and former Children’s Laureate Michael Rosen and wade through the grass, splash through the river and squelch through the mud in search of a bear. What a surprise awaits us in the cave on the other side of the dark forest!

Join David Lindo, also known as the Urban Birder, for a birding walk along the River Wye to celebrate his debut children’s book Fly. On the walk you’ll learn endless facts about the wildlife near Hay Festival and spot many birds, potentially even the elusive Kingfisher! Be sure to bring your binoculars if you have a pair for this special guided event.

Please dress for the weather – wellies advised.

Get your Hay day off to a brilliant start with our daily Ready, Steady, Music workshops! With different activities each day, these interactive, fun-filled sessions for mini musicians and their grown-ups will have you tapping sticks, roaring like dinosaurs, flying with unicorns, dancing with scarves, playing with parachutes and so much more. Come and meet our puppets, explore our range of instruments and listen to the beautiful sound of the cello.

Captivating young imaginations and creating lasting memories, these sessions offer a unique musical adventure. The perfect way to boost wellbeing, increase confidence, spark creativity and introduce children to the joy of music.

Come and join Rooted Forest School for some outdoor family sessions offering natural creativity for everyone. We’ll use willow and natural materials to create a collaborative piece of nature art in the Family Garden. Dress for the weather and expect to get messy! These sessions will run whatever the weather, so make sure you’re wrapped up for the conditions.

Come to the Family Garden for a pizza masterclass with Kitchen Garden Pizza. In this one-hour session your imagination and creativity will be fed along with your belly! You’ll get your hands messy with freshly grown and foraged ingredients, make and top your own dough and observe the pizzaioli at work at the wood-fired oven.

Dairy-free and gluten-free options available.

Come to the Family Garden for a pizza masterclass with Kitchen Garden Pizza. In this one-hour session your imagination and creativity will be fed along with your belly! You’ll get your hands messy with freshly grown and foraged ingredients, make and top your own dough and observe the pizzaioli at work at the wood-fired oven.

Dairy-free and gluten-free options available.

Where do you live? What does it look like? And why does your sense of home matter so much? Join Emma Barnett, BBC broadcaster and founder of nationwide colouring book company Colour Your Streets, along with her husband and co-founder Jeremy Weil, to draw and colour in places in your area that are important to you. All materials provided… just bring your imagination.

Come and join Rooted Forest School for some outdoor family sessions offering natural creativity for everyone. We’ll use willow and natural materials to create a collaborative piece of nature art in the Family Garden. Dress for the weather and expect to get messy! These sessions will run whatever the weather, so make sure you’re wrapped up for the conditions.

Come to the Family Garden for a pizza masterclass with Kitchen Garden Pizza. In this one-hour session your imagination and creativity will be fed along with your belly! You’ll get your hands messy with freshly grown and foraged ingredients, make and top your own dough and observe the pizzaioli at work at the wood-fired oven.

Dairy-free and gluten-free options available.

Join Liz Pichon, the bestselling and award-winning creator of Tom Gates, as she launches her new series, The Mubbles. Discover the Isle of Smile and find out what’s behind the uncertain curtain? There’ll be music, games and lots of doodling to do.

Pichon’s Tom Gates series has won the Roald Dahl Funny Prize, the Blue Peter Book Award for Best Story and the younger fiction category of the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize. In the twelve years since the series began, the Tom Gates books have inspired the nation’s children to get creative, whether through reading, drawing, doodling, writing, making, playing music or performing.

Please bring your own sketchbook and pencils to this event.

David Lindo, also known as the Urban Birder, is a writer, broadcaster, photographer and educator. Through his broad array of work, his goals are to inspire people to engage with birds in urban environments, and show how birding can be accessible to all. Join him in this exciting event to learn all about his work and his love of birding.

Lose yourself with Tahereh Mafi in her exhilarating return to the Shatter Me universe. Watch Me is the first book in a new series set ten years after the fall of The Reestablishment. Brimming with pulse-pounding action and torturous romance, it’s an explosive journey through a dystopian landscape, begging a desperate question – who are we when no one is watching?

James Anderson has infiltrated Ark Island. No outsider has breached the stronghold of the authoritarian regime, but James is in. In a prison cell, sure, but a win is a win. Rosabelle Wolff is tightly controlled – where constant surveillance is packaged as security, even emotions must be experienced with caution. When she’s given an order to kill, she never hesitates…