The 2025 Hay Festival of Literature and Arts, better known as the Hay Festival in the pretty market town of Hay-on-Wye on the English/Welsh border, gets underway this week and runs from 22nd May until 1st June 2025.
This Bank Holiday weekend also sees HowTheLightGetsIn return to Hay-on-Wye, from 23rd to 26th May, with a great line up and programme of debate, music, comedy and cabaret, with locals able to join in from just £9 with Flexi Tickets.
The festival is set against the impressive backdrop of the Black Mountains in Wales, where the world’s largest philosophy and music festival invites everyone attending to explore its 2025 theme which this year is “Navigating the Unknown”.
The 330 performers, 300+ events on 12 stages taking place over the Bank Holiday weekend will see leading thinkers, politicians and performers tackle some of the biggest challenges of our time that include the current global instability and economic upheaval to freedom, identity and misinformation that threatens society.
This year’s speakers include Claudia de Rham, Slavoj Žižek, Jeremy Corbyn, Nicola Sturgeon, Jordan Stephens, Lionel Shriver, Shashi Tharoor and Yanis Varoufakis. And every talk is open to audience participation, which is wholeheartedly encouraged.
Running alongside this year’s world-class ideas programme will be a genre-spanning music and comedy line-up. It will be headlined by Hot Chip’s Joe Goddard, bringing his signature fusion of house, synth-pop and disco to the festival, along with performances by Grammy nominees Zero 7 (DJ Set), Molotov Jukebox, post-punk duo Baba Ali, Tom Robinson, Deptford Northern Soul Club and Fyfe Dangerfield.
You can expect sharp, standout sets on the comedy stage from the likes of Janine Harouni, Rhys James, Joz Norris, Sharon Wanjohi, Ben Pope, all complemented by cabaret, immersive lounges and late-night dancing at the riverside disco.
There is a choice of flexible tickets if you live nearby or just want to attend the festival for a day if you are coming from further afield. The Flexi Tickets allow you to dip into the festival as you choose. For example, with a Flexi Pass you can simply choose the day(s) you want to attend. Alternatively, the Flexi-4 allows you to pick any four events on those days, with prices starting from £9 per adult with children under 12 admitted for free. Students and under 25s are eligible for a 40% discount.
For more information on the Hay Festival, please visit: www.hayfestival.com and for more information on HowTheLightGetsIn and to purchase tickets, please visit: www.howthelightgetsin.org.
Author Bio:
Simon Burrell is a UK-based travel and motoring journalist and editor, a former member of The British Guild of Travel Writers and professional photographer.
Photographs courtesy of HowTheLightGetsIn
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