HowTheLightGetsIn Festival

HowTheLightGetsIn Festival is the world’s largest philosophy and music festival.

Over 300 events, 100 debates and talks, and 200 music and performance events.

HowTheLightGetsIn returns to Hay-on-Wye for a festival experience full of magic and wonder.

On the Bank Holiday weekend, our Riverside site will host more venues than ever before. You’ll find headline music acts, the best in stand-up comedy from the UK and beyond, debates between the world’s leading thinkers, and so much more.

Our music programme is what makes HowTheLightGetsIn unique. From enchanting solo singers to exhilarating dance, all day and night, you’ll find our idyllic riverside site alive with the music that fills the air.

As night begins to fall at HowTheLightGetsIn, the Ring and the Stage turn from hubs of intellectual activity into venues abuzz with some of the UK’s best comedy acts. With an indecently funny line-up, the laughs are (almost) guaranteed to drown out the party next door.