HowTheLightGetsIn May 2021 is the world's largest ideas and music festival. With the most original minds on the planet: from Nobel Prize winners to environmental campaigners, top politicians to radical journalists. Join us to challenge the limits of what you know.

Alongside dynamic debates, speakers delve into their specialist topics in Solo Talks and Philosophy comes to life in Hat Sessions. In the Inner Circle, dive into some of the greatest minds on the planet. Usually nestling in the Welsh Hills of Hay-on-Way, HowTheLightGetsIn finds new ways to meet, talk and party.  

Uniquely, HowTheLightGetsIn festivals lead with debates. They are alive with ideas. Our programmes have many names you will recognise but HowTheLightGetsIn festivals are not about status or celebrity. We are about free-thinking and wonder, creating a space where everyone's imagination can flourish. Find exciting new bands, discover ground-breaking new thinkers and ideas yet to make their mark, and ask questions in electrifying debates