The Hay Festival is coming, which means a small town in Wales is about to fill with writers, readers, thinkers, wanderers carrying tote bags and delusional folk pretending they are not going to buy books and who absolutely are going to buy lots of books.

I know this because I’ve been and that’s the only kind of people who go. I also came home with a small number of books, which remains one of the great miracles of my adult life, I didn’t fill the car. I can’t explain how it happened.

For anyone who hasn’t been, Hay Festival is not quite like anything else. It takes place in Hay-on-Wye, which is a dangerous place if you like books because the whole town has reordered itself around this novel identity. There are bookshops, little streets, views, food, people drifting about with programmes and that particular festival energy where everyone seems to be either on their way to hear someone brilliant or recovering from having just heard someone brilliant.

This year, Hay Festival runs from 21 to 31 May 2026, with the full programme already out. The festival site itself is free to enter, which is useful if you want to go and soak up the atmosphere, browse, eat, drink and people-watch.The talks and events are ticketed individually, and there are usually several things happening across each time slot, which means the real challenge is about prioritising who you most want to see out of each time slot, assuming there are tickets left. They sell out quickly.

Hay is one of those festivals where the programme makes you feel both intellectually alive and slightly under-read. There are novelists, poets, historians, broadcasters, scientists, politicians, comedians, journalists, children’s authors and performers. And there’s bound to be someone you haven’t discovered yet. That is part of the joy of it. You can go for one author and come away with three new ones to obsess over, until next year.

There are big headline conversations, of course. There are also workshops, walks, family events, film screenings, performances, food events and all sorts of things tucked around the edges. Hay Castle is part of the wider festival experience too, with tours and events and there are guided walks around Hay and the surrounding landscape for people who may want to remember that their bodies exist below the neck and should occasionally be moved through fresh air.

The first thing to expect is choice. Too much choice, really, but in a good way. We even enjoyed the signings in the bookshops, mostly because it was a delight watching people meet their heroes.

The second thing to expect is weather. It’s Wales, in May. Expect all the seasons and to need a hot drink and an ice-cream at differing stages. Take layers, something waterproof, shoes that can cope with grass, paths and queues. I’d also recommend you give everyone in your party a decent sized bag, for their purchases, or, in reality to help you carry yours.

The third thing to expect is the Hay effect. You may think you are going for the talks. You are, of course. But there is also the matter of books. Books by people you have just heard speak are particularly dangerous because they now have a voice attached to them, they have new context and charm and even a personal relationship with, despite the author having no idea you exist. This is how they get you.

I remember the feeling of coming out of an event and wanting to read everything immediately. I was delighted to have spent a day with like minded people, soaked in my favourite hobbies of reading, admiring, buying and hoarding books. Drunk on literature and seduced by fresh pages.

That sounds a bit earnest, doesn’t it?

Hay also has a lovely quality of making you feel briefly as though you might become an improved version of yourself. The sort of person who attends literary festivals, reads widely and might be thought of as half literate. This illusion may last for several hours. Enjoy it while you can. And if you come home with only a small number of books, do let me know how you managed it, I can only assume I was briefly abducted by aliens.