https://www.hayfestival.com/hay-on-wye/home

This year we visited the Hay Festival only on the first weekend. There were lots of other events we would have liked to attend but logistics are tricky with driving required, and a 3 hour trip for us. Logistics are always tricky with our staying at a Premier Inn hotel in the Bannau Brycheiniog National Park (formerly known as “Brecon Beacons”) a good 45 minute drive from Hay – though a very pleasant drive through the park with winding roads and beautiful scenery.

The facilities vary slightly, year on year, with the facilities generally remaining the same. There are bag checks at the main entrance with entry free. Events are generally paid and ticketed but there are a number of free things to do on site as well. There are a good number of stalls with all manner of things from crafts, food items, charities, to, of course, books with a large on-site festival book store (located at the back) and a large “Oxfam” used book store located this year just to the left of the main entrance.

The “Family Garden” area was new to me this year, with a small event tent on site but otherwise, a large open space with a huge tent having lounging areas underneath, away from the heat of the sun, a children's craft tent (free to enter, but child required and pre-booking essential), several food trucks and toilet/baby changing facilities.

The “Canteen” this year had the usual, fairly diverse, set of food offerings catering to all diets and desires…though, at a price. We visited Taste Tibet for their “momos” (dumplings) and Meat and Greek for their lovely chicken gyros.

Toilets, of course, were plentiful and very nicely appointed, located both outside the main entrance and at several locations on site - Very clean with water basins for washing.

Note that none of the tents on-site are air conditioned which caused a problem for many people as it was quite crowded and one of the warmest few days in May ever recorded. Free water was available at several water pipes throughout the site though when we visited it was hot so we had to queue for access.

There are shuttles available to take festival goers from the main site into town which is otherwise a 1/2 mile walk. Tickets were £5/day for unlimited trips and offered a great way to commute if you did not have a lot of time or were suffering from the heat, as we were.

The festival site itself is easy enough to get around on foot with covered walkways and tents throughout. Similarly, the small town of Hay is easy enough to walk around on foot though the streets can be a bit steep in places.

If you do want to attend at some point, do make sure to plan well in advance, including arranging accommodation which is still very tricky for the festival though nowadays the festival does make a large number of options available. If you do not have a car, you will have to take a shuttle bus from the nearest train station in Hereford OR take a local bus to get here (there is no local train station).

Cars are definitely recommended. There is a massive official car park in several large fields immediately next to the main entrance for £10/day on the day or £9/day in advance with proceeds given to the Macmillan Cancer Support charity. We arrived late on Saturday so had quite a walk to the main entrance as we were parked in the far side of the second field, on the second day we arrived earlier and were only a few rows from the entrance. There are other non-official car parks in the area that are cheaper but much smaller and may involve a bit more of a walk.

During the festival we attended the following talks:

• (May 23rd) Dawn French Talks to Richard Coles “Enough: The Comedian and Author’s New Novel” - Dawn French is one of our favourite comedians and authors. We really enjoyed “The Vicar of Dibley” and, suitably enough, she was interviewed here by vicar (and comedian) Richard Coles to talk about her latest fiction book “Enough” which talks about a woman's decision to end her life as she has simply done everything she set out to do, informing her family and friends the morning of her decision with the unexpected fallout this causes. The talk was very good and quite funny with the two working very well on the stage. Coles added a good amount of appropriate input to the conversation while French explained her thinking and talked a bit about her career including, of course, the Vicar of Dibley. The stuffy “Global Stage” auditorium, the largest on site, was packed.

• (May 23rd) Tim Minchin Talks to Adam Fleming “You Don’t Have to Have a Dream: His First Non-fiction Book” - We are huge fans of musician and, wouldn't you know it, author Tim Minchin who was here talking about the soft cover of his first non-fiction book which was, in fact, published in hard cover a few years earlier (the soft cover being a good excuse to show up at the festival, evidently). He was interviewed by BBC radio presenter Adam Fleming who provided interesting questions and comments to the discussion which steered quite dramatically to the philosophical with Minchin generally not directly answering questions but instead looking for meaning in the question itself and talking about that. One interesting point he made was that as a creator of musicals he has to have a deep understanding of sociology and philosophy in order to create a show that people will relate to and be interested in addressing. In some ways, the creation of the piece is the least difficult but, rather, finding something to say and figuring out how to say it being the most difficult. An interesting talk in the sweltering “Global Stage” auditorium that was, once again, packed.

• (May 24th) Guided Tour of Hay Castle & Hay Castle Entry “Explore Hay Castle with a Tour Guide” (Hay Castle) - Despite having visited Hay-on-Wye for many, many years, we have never actually visited the castle that sits atop a hill overlooking the town. The festival provides the opportunity to take a tour of the castle as part of it's programme so we picked them up on this, joining a Sunday morning (11 am) tour around the castle which we learned is largely Edwardian with only a small portion remaining of the medieval structure originally constructed here. It was largely the guide talking to us rather than actually showing us around (though we did see a good amount) as he talked us through the history of the castle and, of course, the town, ending with a talk about “Richard Booth” the so-called “King of Hay” in an exhibit in the castle devoted to him.

• (May 24th) Susie Dent talks to MG Leonard “The Roots We Share” - Susie Dent is a famous English lexicographer and etymologist as well as television personality from the “Countdown” show where one of the puzzles has to do with finding the longest word possible from a selection of random letters. Here she talked about her latest book “Roots of Happiness” which presents 100 words and their origins (with amazing full-page imagery), that she calls “joyful” and brings us together rather than, as we are frequently opt to do, us words to drive us apart. She provided an interesting insight into not only the book but also a number of other words suggested by the audience. Her interviewer, MG Leonard, is fascinated by beetles so there was a conversation about words associated with that as well. This was held in the “Spring Stage” in the “Family Garden” on site.

Another great festival with huge crowds there on the opening weekend when we attended though the heat turned out to be a bit of a problem with the lack of air conditioning. Otherwise, the talks we attended were excellent - Very interesting, engaging and often quite funny. Look forward to seeing what's on next years programme…

Rating: “Really good but I have some issues”

Review Date: 2026-05-24

Location: Hay-on-Wye (Wales)

Address: The Hay Festival, Dairy Meadows, Brecon Road, Hay on Wye HR3 5PJ WALES

Telephone: +44 (0) 1497 822 629

URL: https://www.hayfestival.com/wales/home

The Hay Festival site is just south the town with large amounts of parking available in nearby fields. Entrance to the site is free with toilets, a book store (obvs), and a number of crowded-in street food stalls (serving mostly vegetarian options, at least in 2022, with not a lot of seating best option is to take it away to another part of site and sit there instead). Events are held in tents connected by covered walkways on site with copious amounts of deck chair seating in grassy areas throughout.