Hay Festival has today announced the programme for its 25th Winter Weekend, bringing writers and readers together in Hay-on-Wye, 28 November–1 December.
Discover the full programme now at hayfestival.org and become a Member for three days of exclusive booking before the general release at noon this Friday.
Over four days, more than 70 acclaimed artists take part in over 60 events, launching the best new fiction and non-fiction, exploring creative solutions to some of the biggest challenges of our time, and spreading festive joy in conversations, candle-lit storytelling, comedy, music, and workshops.
Guests include novelists Ali Smith and Paula Hawkins; actors Rupert Everett, Paterson Joseph and Luke Evans; broadcaster and campaigner Carol Vorderman; former Australian PM Julia Gillard; statistician David Spiegelhalter; classicist Natalie Haynes; poet Theresa Lola; Uncanny host Danny Robins; foreign policy specialist Chloe Dalton; comedians Russell Kane and Vic Reeves; broadcaster Cerys Matthews; musician Arun Ghosh; supervet Noel Fitzpatrick; and historians Sarah Clegg and Jonathan Dimbleby.
Events will take place in a specially built 350-seater marquee in the grounds of Hay Castle, in the Castle’s Clore workshop space, plus venues around town, including St Mary’s Church, The Poetry Bookshop, and North Books.
The Festival’s bookshop, open daily from 9am, will stock featured titles and gifts, plus host regular book signings and a special display from Festival partner Visit Seattle.
Part-funded by the UK Government via the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, the Festival weekend sees the Welsh booktown’s independent shops, cafés and markets offer a warm welcome to Festivalgoers within the Bannau Brycheiniog National Park.
Digital media partner TikTok will support Hay Festival Winter Weekend for the first time, hosting some of the UK’s top creators while supporting development opportunities for young creatives within the team.
Select events will be livestreamed to audiences around the world through the Festival’s online pass, on sale now at
hayfestival.org/onlinepass.
Hay Festival Global CEO Julie Finch said:
“New ideas, joy and hope – what better ingredients for a year-end festival to wrap one year and help us spring into the next? We’ll offer a world of different experiences at Hay Festival Winter Weekend 2024, sharing a heady dose of entertainment alongside some bold visions for the future. Returning to the centre of Hay-on-Wye in the grounds of Hay Castle, we’ll build on the success of last year’s sold-out event by offering access to more Festivalgoers than ever, live and online. Join us!”
Poet and performer Theresa Lola said:
“Hay Festival is a global platform that is part of the fabric of what keeps publishing and the work of writers alive. They have consistently connected writers with audiences around the world, bringing about a wholesome exchange that inspires, prompts new possibilities, and opens us to new perspectives. During my first visit to Hay Festival, I read the work of Maya Angelou as part of a celebration event, so I am delighted to be part of this year’s programme bringing my own poetry collection. The weekender in Wales is perfectly placed to stimulate and heat us up over the winter.”
Broadcaster and writer Danny Robins said:
“I'm thrilled to be appearing at Hay Festival Winter Weekend. I've had some really fun times at Hay Festival recording live episodes of Uncanny for BBC Radio 4 in the sparkling summer sun, and now it feels very fitting to be returning to Hay-on-Wye as the nights draw in and a chill fills the air to be discussing the serious business of ghosts to coincide with the paperback release of my book Into the Uncanny. I can promise an evening that makes you think and sends a little shiver down your spine.”
PROGRAMME IN DEPTH
Great storytelling majors in the programme as novelist
Ali Smith presents
Gliff; Wales Book of the Year winner
Alex McCarthy talks
The Unbroken Beauty of Rosalind Bone; and
Paula Hawkins offers
The Blue Hour; while poet
Theresa Lola shares her new collection,
Ceremony for the Nameless;
Glyn Edwards offers
In Orbit, actor
Rupert Everett shares his first ever collection of stories,
The American No; and broadcaster
Danny Robins shares
Into the Uncanny.
Following a year of elections and global upheavals, Wales today and the role of Britain in the wider world comes into focus in conversations with campaigner
Carol Vorderman (
Now What?: On a Mission to Fix Broken Britain), former Australian Prime Minister
Julia Gillard, Baroness
Lola Young, and actor
Paterson Joseph; while an expert panel explores the year ahead in the Festival’s 2025 visions discussion.
Big ideas take centre-stage as new thinking comes to the fore in conversations with statistician
David Spiegelhalter (
The Art of Uncertainty),
Tom Chatfield (
Wise Animals),
Dr Ariel Zeleznikow-Johnston (
The Future Loves You) and astrophysicist
Chris Lintott (
Our Accidental Universe); inspiring life stories mark the year’s end with hope as
Shaparak Khorsandi talks
Scatter Brain and
Jordan Stephens presents
Avoidance, Drugs, Heartbreak and Dogs; and the BBC host a free live recording of their popular Inside Science.
After another transformative 12 months at Hay Festival Global, CEO
Julie Finch joins Director of TATE
Maria Balshaw for a conversation on the future of the arts, chaired by BBC Media Editor
Katie Razzall.
History and myth are reimagined with historian
George Nash on
Neolithic Tombs of Wales;
Jonathan Dimbleby on
Endgame 1944: How Stalin won the War; and classicist
Natalie Haynes on
Divine Might: Goddesses in Greek Myth.
The natural world is explored and celebrated in conversations with actor and broadcaster
Caroline Quentin (
Drawn to the Garden); writer
Tom Bullough(
Sarn Helen);
Tom Mustill (
How to Speak Whale);
Chloe Dalton (
Raising Hare) and
Noel Fitzpatrick (
Dogs and Their Humans).
There’s seasonal joy and inspiration to be enjoyed with comedian
Jenny Eclair on
Jokes, Jokes, Jokes: My Very Funny Memoir; broadcaster
Kevin McCloud on 25 years of Grand Designs; actor
Luke Evans with
Boy From the Valleys: My Unexpected Journey; food writer
Grace Dent on
Comfort Eating; and
Jim Moir (aka
Vic Reeves) joins
Nancy Moir to present share their new art book,
Painting Birds.
Families can enjoy a wide mix of activities including
Russell Kane on
Pet Selector!: A hilarious guide to all the usual and unusual household pets, while Hay Castle hosts a special illustration exhibition on Sir Quentin Blake.
Music rings out across the Festival weekend as performances in St Mary’s Church include cellist
Maxim Calver and
Father Richard with his silent film performance; plus
Hay Shantymen,
The Nonsense Singers,
Cantorian Y Gelli, and the
Hay Community Choir entertain Festivalgoers with a series of pop-up sets around town; broadcaster
Cerys Matthews revisits the beloved fictional world of Dylan Thomas’
Under Milk Wood in a session of storytelling and music alongside jazz musician
Arun Ghosh; while historian
Sarah Clegg explores the dark side of Christmas in a special event on
The Dead of Winter: The Demons, Witches and Ghosts of Christmas accompanied by
Blackthorn Ritualistic Folk and John Kirkpatrick.
Extra sparkle to live events comes from the town’s Market Square as a special guest turns on the Christmas lights, Friday 29 November, in what has become an annual Winter Weekend highlight.
And the Festival will draw on public nominations to crown the Hay Festival Book of the Year following past wins for Barbara Kingsolver’s
Demon Copperhead, Bonnie Garmus’
Lessons in Chemistry, Deborah Levy’s
Real Estate, Dara McAnulty’s
Diary of a Young Naturalist, Hallie Rubenhold’s
The Five, Sarah-Jayne Blakemore’s
Inventing Ourselves and Jackie Morris and Robert Macfarlane’s
The Lost Words.