Hay Festival reveals packed 2026 programme

The Hay Festival has unveiled its packed programme for 2026 with more than 500 events including notable figures from the world of literature, comedy and politics.

The 39th spring edition of the festival which takes place in the Welsh book town of Hay-on-Wye will open for 11 days from May 21–31.

Tickets are on sale now to Hay Festival Membership+, Patrons and Benefactors.

Priority booking starts at noon Wednesday 11 March before general booking opens Saturday 14 March.

Headline artists include Emma Thompson, Malala Yousafzai, Gisèle Pelicot, Mariana Mazzucato, Maggie O’Farrell, David Miliband, Dawn French, Tom Allen, Aled Jones, Bear Grylls, Emerald Fennell, Jamie Laing, and Prue Leith.

Hay Festival Global CEO Julie Finch said: “Hay Festival 2026 will open minds to exploring the world through great writers, performers, experts, and the next generation of artists and activists offering us creative inspiration and hope for a better future.

“As the UK Government’s National Year of Reading invites the country to Go All In for books, our tents are open to all, spaces where everyone is welcome to exchange ideas and inspiration. See you there!”

A series of new initiatives and fresh programming strands feature across the programme including ‘My Life in Books’ events that see celebrities open their personal libraries and ‘Heard’ at Hay Festival panels that will spark thought-provoking debates.

Alongside the best new fiction and non-fiction, our changing world is drawn into focus with commentary from leading politicians, economists, historians and scientists, while journalists and commentators will reflect on the UK’s recent local elections.

Nights at the festival are given over to great music, comedy and entertainment with a renewed focus on innovative, immersive event experiences, while a host of free pop-up activities and performances will delight audiences between sessions.

Free to enter, the Festival’s Dairy Meadows site in the Bannau Brycheiniog National Park will also offer a range of spaces for audiences to explore and enjoy between events, including the Bookshop, BBC Marquee, Wild Garden, Make & Take Tent, a host of exhibitors and market stalls, cafés, and the Family Garden.

Leading novelists will share new work at the festival including Ian McEwan (What We Can Know), Ocean Vuong (The Emperor of Gladness), Helen Oyeyemi (A New New Me), Maggie O’Farrell (Land), Fredrik Backman (My Friends), Colm Tóibín (The News from Dublin), Ali Smith (Glyph), Sarah Moss (Ripeness), Sarah Hall (Helm), Matt Haig (The Midnight Train), Douglas Stuart (John of John), Ruth Ozeki (The Typing Lady), Richard Armitage (The Cut), Elizabeth Day (One of Us), Lionel Shriver (A Better Life), Samantha Harvey (Orbital), Tayari Jones (Kin), John Lanchester (Look What you Made me Do), Yvette Edwards (Good, Good Living), Brenda Navarro (Eating Ashes), Santanu Bhattacharya (Deviants), Kiran Millwood Hargrave (Almost Love), Jenny Fagan (The Delusions), Irvine Welsh (Men in Love), Mónica Ojeda (Electric Shamans at the Festival of the Sun), Renato Cisneros (The Distance Between Us), Claire Fuller (Hunger and Thirst), Elizabeth Strout (The Things We Never Say), Liz Nugent (The Truth About Ruby Cooper), Ardal O’Hanlon (A Plot to Die For), Ben Okri (Waking the Warriors) and Ruth Jones (By Your Side).

Writers and performers will step into a new world of fiction with debut novels from psychotherapist Philippa Perry (Shrink Solves Crime), poet Kae Tempest (Having Spent Life Seeking), comedy superstar Tom Allen (Common Decency), broadcaster Clare Balding (Pastures New), broadcaster and historian Tony Robinson (The House of Wolf).

The classics will also come to life with ‘rockstar mythologist’ Natalie Haynes and her No Friend to This House one woman show, inspired by her feminist retelling of the Greek myths; Daniel Mendelsohn shares his new translation of The Odyssey; and writers Charlotte Cross and Mairi Kidd share their feminist retellings of Dracula and Frankenstein.