Emma Thompson, Malala Yousafzai, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Gisèle Pelicot are among the headline names appearing at Hay festival 2026, organisers have announced. The popular UK literary festival has now unveiled its full programme, featuring more than 500 events running from 21 to 31 May in Hay-on-Wye, Powys. A wide range of leading writers, including Ian McEwan, Maggie O’Farrell, Colm Tóibín,...
Emma Thompson, Malala Yousafzai, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Gisèle Pelicot are among the headline names appearing at Hay festival 2026, organisers have announced. The popular UK literary festival has now unveiled its full programme, featuring more than 500 events running from 21 to 31 May in Hay-on-Wye, Powys. A wide range of leading writers, including Ian McEwan, Maggie O’Farrell, Colm Tóibín, Ali Smith, Elizabeth Strout, Matt Haig, Douglas Stuart, Samantha Harvey, Val McDermid and Ocean Vuong, will appear. Margaret Busby, Cressida Cowell, Tayari Jones, Elizabeth Day, Frank Cottrell-Boyce, Helen Oyeyemi and Ruth Ozeki also feature in the literary schedule, alongside an array of other writers, speakers and thinkers. Political figures set to speak at the festival include David Miliband, Nicola Sturgeon, Sajid Javid and Louise Casey, alongside historians Alice Roberts, David Olusoga and Simon Schama. Themed panels will include a discussion on gender equality, hosted by former leader of the Scottish Conservatives Ruth Davidson, former Australian prime minister Julia Gillard, Labour peer Harriet Harman, and Sky News political editor Beth Rigby. There will be a host of genre-themed events, including a romantasy panel. Elsewhere, Facebook whistleblower and author of Careless People, Sarah Wynn-Willliams, will be in conversation on the power of tech companies, alongside investigative journalist Carole Cadwalladr, the reporter who exposed the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Musicians including Gwenno and Aled Jones will take to the stage throughout the festival. And the comedy lineup features Dawn French, Michael McIntyre, Sara Pascoe, Sandi Toksvig and Greg Davies, among others. There will also be conversations on the art of adaptation, as director Emerald Fennell talks about Wuthering Heights, while Maggie O’Farrell and producer Liza Marshall go behind the scenes on Hamnet. Young readers will be able to attend events with children’s authors including Michael Morpurgo and ...