Hay Festival Families

Create your own content

Want to write, dance, animate or produce for radio? Or just want to listen to your favourite authors talking about their favourite things? Young adults, come and hang out on site – we have a great programme for you addressing important issues for young people today, as well as workshops where you can get involved and produce your own content, from animation to ghost story writing. And there are plenty of events on the main programme for you to discover.

Learn a new skill

‘Making and doing’ is a vital part of enjoying culture, so we have a varied programme of workshops for children and teenagers. With so much going on, you have free rein to be adventurous and express your creativity by trying something new at Hay Festival. Workshops range from circus skills to animation, music, illustration and creative writing.

Pizza-making workshops

Kitchen Garden Pizza are running daily one-hour masterclasses for children in which imaginations and creativity will be fed alongside bellies. You’ll get your hands messy with freshly grown and foraged ingredients, making and topping your own dough and observing the pizzaioli at work at the wood-fired oven while decorating your own pizza box. Book online at hayfestival.org/workshops.

Browse and book our 2024 Workshops

Get hands on

The Make & Take Hub on site offers an opportunity to get crafting! There are three Make & Take crafting sessions each day, for children aged 3–11 years. Activities and themes differ every day, including everything from print-making to sculpture creation using recycled materials. Get messy and creative with our team of artists: your imagination is the limit.

Book in advance at £5 per child, and you can drop in at any point during the 1.5 hour session.

Sessions run 10am–11.30pm, 12pm–1.30pm and 2.30pm–4pm, from Saturday 25 May to Sunday 2 June (closing at 1.30pm on Sunday 2 June).

An accompanying adult must attend at all times but does not need a ticket.

The Make & Take 2024 sessions are supported by The Rivers Trust

Families at the Festival

We want to make everyone’s visit to the Festival easy and enjoyable – find out more about accessibility. Hay Festival Bookshop has a large Children’s and YA section for easy browsing, and all caterers on site offer child-friendly portions.

Explore our Family Garden

We have a dedicated children’s area, new in 2024, with its own garden offering a playful space to enjoy and explore. You’ll find dedicated food outlets, a buggy park, family-friendly toilets and a space for baby changing and feeding. The Family Garden hosts the children’s event venues as well as the much-loved Make & Take Hub.

Watch pop-up Shakespeare

Enjoy a pop-up performance on Tuesday 28 May (12.30pm in the Bookshop Garden). A Midsummer Night’s Dream or Four Weddings and a Fairy is a mini version of Shakespeare’s classic, performed by students from Hereford College of Arts. They’ve designed it as the perfect introduction to Shakespeare for children, complete with puppets, aerial dance, song and knock-about comedy.children, complete with puppets, aerial dance, song and knock-about comedy.

Get active on Sports Day

To mark the 2024 Olympic year, we’re having our first ever Sports Day! On Wednesday 29 May you can try a variety of sporting activities, such as fencing, badminton and football, in free drop-in sessions across the site. Find out more about Sports Day.

Follow our Sculpture Trail

Follow our new family activity trail around the site. There are six wooden sculptures to find, designed by talented local artist Danny Thomas of Thomas Chainsaw Carving. You can collect a map of the trail from the information desk in the main Festival entrance.

Bring your notebook and sketchbook

In some events you’ll be encouraged to draw along or scribble notes: please bring a sketchbook and/or notebook and pencils or pens along with you, or buy some from the Hay Festival Shop. We’d love to see your artwork – post it on socials @hayfestival.