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- Author talks and interviews — The heart of Hay is the long, focused conversations between writers and interviewers. You get proper, thoughtful Q&As rather than quick promos, and the small-ish venues mean you can actually hear and sometimes ask a question. It’s literary without being snooty: expect serious ideas but also charm, laughter and storytelling that sticks with you after the marquee empties.
- Big ideas and cross-disciplinary debates — Hay is where literature rubs shoulders with science, politics, history and art, producing panels that actually surprise you. These sessions are less about celebrity and more about testing ideas, so you’ll come away thinking about things differently — often with the audience joining in and making the debate livelier than the speakers.
- Late-night fringe,
- Author talks and interviews — The heart of Hay is the long, focused conversations between writers and interviewers. You get proper, thoughtful Q&As rather than quick promos, and the small-ish venues mean you can actually hear and sometimes ask a question. It’s literary without being snooty: expect serious ideas but also charm, laughter and storytelling that sticks with you after the marquee empties.
- Big ideas and cross-disciplinary debates — Hay is where literature rubs shoulders with science, politics, history and art, producing panels that actually surprise you. These sessions are less about celebrity and more about testing ideas, so you’ll come away thinking about things differently — often with the audience joining in and making the debate livelier than the speakers.
- Late-night fringe, spoken word and live music — When the main stages close, the festival goes hunting for weird and wonderful shows: poets, improvised music, comedians and small-theatre pieces in pubs and tents. It’s where you find unexpected sparks and local talent, and where a night out can turn into a series of brilliant mini-discoveries. Bring a jacket — Welsh nights are cool even in summer.
- Hay-on-Wye bookshop hunting and festival spillover — The town itself is the rare festival advantage: hundreds of secondhand and specialist bookshops clustered in a walkable village. Between sessions you’ll be browsing dusty shelves, bargaining for odd editions, and stumbling into pop-up readings in shop windows. Personal favorite: wandering those lanes with a paper bag of new (old) books and a half-finished talk still buzzing in your head.
- Family and children’s programming — Hay is unusually family-friendly for a literary festival — there are story sessions, hands-on workshops and outdoor theatre aimed at kids and teens. That means parents can share the experience, kids get proper creative stuff to do, and the whole place feels more inclusive and relaxed than a single-track festival.
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Hi, I’m Johan (Netherlands 🇳🇱), the creator of TakeYourBackpack. Over the past decade, I’ve backpacked through 80+ countries across six continents, gaining extensive experience with independent travel, long-term trips, and overland routes.