Hay Festival Weekend Weekend 25-27 November

By j.bell on 01/11/2016

Winter Weekend Revels 25-27 November

Hay Festival
© Adam Tatton-Reid

Welcome to the Winter Weekend

Please join us for a seasonal feast of stories and ideas, from Danish hygge to Welsh whisky, and from the wonders of the cosmos to the poetry of the Shipping Forecast, Ben Fogle's love of Land Rovers and Daisy Goodwin's young Queen Victoria. Every night there'll be comedy and music. Hay's inns and restaurants will throw open their doors for a delightful weekend party.

This fabulous photo was taken by Adam Tatton-Reid at Hay Castle on the night of the Autumn equinox. It's actually 140 separate 20-second long exposures. The photos are then 'layered' and the resulting Star-Trail shows how far the stars move, or rather how much the earth rotates, over the period that the photos were taken, in this case an hour from 10pm to 11pm.

For all the family

Making decorations at Richard Booth's Bookshop
Nicola Davies and Petr Horáček present a collection of verses celebrating the natural world in A First book of Animals. Winner of the 2015 Waterstones Children's Book Prize Rob Biddulph introduces Odd Dog Out and, for older children, there's a workshop with Guardian Children's Book Award Winner Piers Torday.

For a Christmas singalong in Hay Castle, the switching on of the Christmas Lights and a weekend of celebrating Advent in Hay, we look forward to welcoming you from 25-27 November.

Series 3 Launch for the Hay Levels

We have just released the first 20 of this Season's Hay Levels. Inspiring and thrilling micro-lectures from some of the world's greatest teachers. Fascinating for everyone, and really key for school or college students at GCSE or A-Level.

This is Emily Grossman explaining Isomers with soft fruit. Wait until you hear Susannah Gibson unpack Froggy Trousers. Mervyn King's video about how banks fail is clinically clear and acute, and truly, madly, deeply troubling.

Book of the Month

THIS IS A GREAT BOOK
This is a great book of stories full of courage and rage and humanity and wonders. It's edited by Nikesh Shukla, who was at the festival this year, and published by our mates at Unbound. It's available from all good libraries and bookshops. Pass a copy to someone you think might like it. Please pass a copy to anyone who thinks they might not like it.

Hay Festival Arequipa, Peru

The festival takes place in the staggeringly beautiful city of Arequipa from 8 to 11 December, hosting over 100 guests from 15 countries including Nobel Laureates and some of the all-time greats of the Spanish language.

We hope you can join us or follow us on @hayfestival_esp #hayfestivalperu.

For the full programme and more information please see Hay Festival Arequipa.

Hay Festival Friends

Give the people you love the gift of Hay Festival Friends Membership this Christmas, for individuals, couples or families. You can buy Gift Vouchers to give for Christmas or arrange Hay Festival Friends Membership as a gift by calling Penny on 01497 822629.

All the books on the programme are available at our pop-up bookshop in The Swan. You are welcome to come and browse. We will also be selling gorgeous gifts for Christmas presents. If you'd like to reserve signed copies of any Winter Weekend books and have them posted to you please email our bookseller, Gareth.

Our Partners & Sponsors

Hay is a magical place for visitors with a spectacular range of independent shops run by people with great taste and flair.  You'll be most welcome.

Our pubs and restaurants win awards and friends, and there are miles and miles of bookshelves and a fairytale castle - which was, according to legend, built in one night by the giantess, Matilda de Braose. Please support these wonderful people who sponsor the festival when you're here.


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