HAY-ON-WYE was awash with colour as the town's Christmas lights were switched on by actress Miriam Margolyes.
The Harry Potter actress, known for playing Professor Sprout, made her appearance in the town hall where she spoke to the people of Hay and led the count down to the switch on.
White lights shone in rows down the streets of the border town, with a big red bow on the end of the town hall and the Christmas tree standing below.
Carol singing also accompanied the switch-on event alongside stalls selling mulled wine, a hog roast, and homemade soup.
After the switch on Margolyes held a talk about her new memoir This Much Is True, with broadcaster and classicist Natalie Haynes at the Hay Festival Winter Weekend.
Margolyes is also famed for her role in The Age Of Innocence, for which she won best supporting actress at the Baftas.
More than 80 acclaimed writers and performers took part in the Hay Festival Winter Weekend, among them Magpie author Elizabeth Day, adventurer Bear Grylls, Primal Scream frontman Bobby Gillespie and former footballer and pundit John Barnes, who will be talking about racism in the sport.
The festival has not been held in person for two years due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
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