A Book Lover’s Pilgrimage
It takes about a three-hour drive from London to reach Hay on Wye, a picturesque village on the border between England and Wales and home of the eponymous literary festival.
The village is famous for its “abnormal” number of bookshops for its size, just over 1600 residents that swell to over 250,000 during the festival days.
A Village Built on Books
The village is quintessentially English: church and castle surrounded by acres of green pastures with (bored) cows and sheep chewing all day long. Then, as you look around, bookshops almost surround you. The number has dwindled in the last few years, with some of them turning into antique book sellers. Yet you still have Richard Booth’s bookshop in a refurbished fire station and Addiman’s with his main outlet flanked by two smaller ones dedicated respectively to real crime and Christie and Conan Doyle.
As you walk around, you see many people reading or enjoying looking through miles of bookshelves for that perfect title to buy. You are also surprised by recognising famous faces.
The Festival Experience
The actual festival is now held just outside the village in a tent complex easily reachable by car or shuttle bus. The festival complex is totally self-contained with multiple tents for talks and events, a food court, a coffee shop, and, would you believe it, a bookshop with acres of space to queue and get your latest purchase signed by the author. It’s ten days with an average of 20 events a day, with an endless roster of writers, journalists, and entertainers. The festival has now been replicated in other countries, achieving similar success (Kenya, Spain, Peru, Colombia).
A Sense of Belonging
It is difficult to explain the feeling, but as you cross the threshold of the Festival, you feel instinctively at home, surrounded by people who share your passion for the printed/digital page. There is an immediate feeling of belonging, and impromptu chats arise almost everywhere from a comment, or an interesting book that somebody is reading, or around a famous author chatting to fans outside a tent.
The Origins of a Book Town
“The town of books” was the brainchild of Richard Booth, who, in the early sixties, decided to revitalise Hay by opening his bookshop, importing large amounts of used books from the States. Other bookshops followed suit and, in 1988, the festival was born. It has grown in popularity both among readers and writers who find it an ideal platform to advertise their latest books.
Practical Considerations
Drawbacks to overcome are finding accommodation near Hay, as people tend to book over a year in advance. We found a nice Airbnb in Brecon, just a few minutes away. All events have to be bought separately, and it can turn into quite an expensive exercise if you have a lot of favourites you want to see and listen to. For example, in 2025, guests included Simon Shama, Salman Rushdie, Elif Shafak, Diane Abbott, Tim Rice, Jeremy Bowen, Robert Harris, Javier Cercas, Abdulrazak Gurnah, and many more. The BBC tent, recording live podcasts, is the only free offering.
Worth the Effort?
Yet wouldn’t it be worth the effort if you could spend a few days in ‘Hayven’? Here is more information on the Hay on Wye Festival.
