The programme for the 35th Hay Festival has been announced and over 500 events will be taking place in and around the charming Welsh town of Hay-on-Wye over 11 days from 26 May to 5 June 2022.

Hay Festival 2017 © Marsha Arnold

Returning for its first in-person spring event since 2019, Hay Festival is one of the world’s leading arts and literature festivals, bringing readers and writers together to share stories and ideas. Nobel Prize winners and novelists, scientists and politicians, historians, environmentalists and musicians join in the festival’s global conversations, sharing the latest thinking in the arts and sciences with curious audiences.

This year’s programme launches the best new fiction and non-fiction, while offering insights and debate around some of the biggest issues of our times. Award-winning writers, policy makers, pioneers and innovators from around the world will be taking part, seeking solutions to issues as diverse as the climate crisis and global conflict. The festival is supported by Visit Wales and the Welsh Government.

Hay Festival © Sam Hardwick

Hay Festival International Director Cristina Fuentes La Roche said: “We’re delighted to be gathering in our booktown with a vibrant programme to imagine the world anew. It’s been 35 years since writers and readers started sharing their stories together in our festival tents and we have never needed these stories more urgently. During the day our conversations and debates will tackle some of the biggest issues of the moment and, in the evenings, we’ll laugh and dance together again.”

The festival was dreamt up around a kitchen table in 1987, in Hay-on-Wye in south east Wales, close to the border with England. The Hay Festival now reaches a global audience of millions each year and continues to grow and innovate, building partnerships and initiatives alongside some of the leading bodies in arts and the media. The festival was memorably described by Bill Clinton in 2001 as "The Woodstock of the mind". 

Hay Festival © Sam Hardwick

Dawn Bowden, Deputy Minister for Arts and Sport in the Welsh Government, said: “It’s such excellent news that we are now seeing a return to in-person events. Hay Festival’s global programme is unlike any other in the way that it focuses on some of the biggest topics affecting the world today. While it showcases Welsh talent to the world, the new hybrid format has also afforded more contributions from the best international talent than ever before.”

Major anniversaries and new festival projects are marked throughout the programme. The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee will be explored with a series of conversations on Women & Power. The “Imagine...” discussions will blend writers and thinkers on some of the biggest global issues of the moment, the festival’s 10@10 series will showcase debut writers each morning, and collaborations with eight leading UK universities will showcase the latest research in the arts and sciences in a Lunchtime Lectures series.

Book signing at Hay Festival © Adam Tatton Reid

Janet Redler, Managing Director of Janet Redler Travel, said: “The return of Hay Festival is an important milestone as things gradually return to normal, and we can all once again enjoy the events and activities which make spring and summer in the UK so fabulous. For book lovers, creative thinkers and all those with enquiring minds, there really is nowhere better than Hay Festival to be inspired, challenged and entertained.”

If you or your group would like to enjoy a tailor-made tour of Wales or the United Kingdom including a visit to the Hay Festival, or some of the many other festivals which take place each year, please do contact our friendly team today. We also offer a wide range of Culture Tours, from opera to art and from theatre to sport.