Gavin & Stacey actress and presenter Joanna Page will switch on Hay-on-Wye’s Christmas lights on Friday, 28 November, as part of her upcoming Hay Festival Winter Weekend appearance.

The free switch-on event, co-hosted by Hay Town Council and Hay Chamber of Commerce, will take place 5–7pm in Memorial Square, accompanied by carol-singing, food stalls, mulled wine and entertainment to give a rousing start to the Festival weekend, which runs to Sunday 30 November.

Born in Swansea, Joanna Page attended her local comprehensive school, then graduated from RADA in 1998. She spent ten years in stage-based roles for the Royal National Theatre and Royal Shakespeare Company, while securing roles in major films, including Love Actually.

She came to wider public attention after taking a leading role in the BBC comedy Gavin & Stacey, playing Stacey Shipman. Joanna can now be seen on TV as a presenter, most recently as the host of Joanna Page’s Wild Life for the BBC Two.

She is at the Festival to launch her new book, Lush! My Story – From Swansea to Stacey and Everything in Between. In this funny, candid and surprising memoir, Joanna shares her story in full for the first time.

Joanna Page said: “It’s time to shine, Hay-on-Wye! I’m delighted to be back in Wales switching on the Christmas lights at Hay Festival Winter Weekend and can’t wait to meet you all. It’s going to be lush!”

Hay Festival Winter Weekend 2025 will offer a world of different experiences, as writers, artists and world-changers mark the turn of the seasons with new ideas, 26-30 November.

Taking place in the grounds of Hay Castle in the heart of 'the world’s first booktown' Hay- on-Wye, Wales, more than 80 artists feature on the programme which focuses on the new role of storytelling; impacts of big tech, democracy, and the new world order.

Headline guests include political activist Maria Alyokhina; actors Joanna Page and Jonathan Pryce; novelists Mick Herron, Sebastian Faulks, Oyinkan Braithwaite, Carlos Fonseca, Oscar Guardiola-Rivera, Cynan Jones, Nikita Gill and Natalie Haynes; lexicographer Susie Dent; comedians Olga Koch, Mark Watson, Rachel Parris and Marcus Brigstocke; politicians Nick Clegg, Vince Cable and Kim Leadbeater; journalists Imran Khan, Jehan Alfarra and Lyse Doucet; writer Jung Chang; documentary maker Jamie Tahsin; chef Raymond Blanc; artist Charlie Mackesy; poets Hollie McNish and Mererid Hopwood; physicists Paul Davies and Vlatko Vedral; criminal psychologist Julia Shaw; historians Alison Weir, Sarah Churchwell and David Olusoga; and Fun Lovin’ Criminals frontman Huey Morgan.

The full programme is online now at hayfestival.org.

Launching the best new fiction and non-fiction, the programme will see participants engage with some of the biggest questions of our times, while spreading festive joy in candle-lit storytelling, workshops, and one-off music and comedy performances.

Over the Festival weekend, the Welsh booktown’s independent shops, cafés and markets offer a warm welcome to Festivalgoers within the Bannau Brycheiniog National Park, with added sparkle coming from the Christmas lights switch-on, Friday 28 November.