Welshpool set for Poetry Festival

With the town still recovering from a superb Festival of Music, Welshpool is preparing to host a Poetry Festival from June 7-9.

In what promises to be a busy June for the local arts scene, next weekend’s festival will be followed a week later by the Montgomeryshire Literature Festival at Gregynog Hall.

The fifth Welshpool Poetry Festival will bring the very best in contemporary poetry to Mid Wales, with tickets selling extremely well to see the likes of Liz Berry, Caroline Bird, Jonathan Edwards, Richard O’Brien and Gaia Harper on the bill.

There are just a handful of tickets left for Birmingham Laureate O’Brien’s workshop which is on Friday from 4-6pm in the Old Court at the Town Hall. These can be booked at www.welshpoolpoetryfestival.org.uk as numbers are restricted.

Tickets are still available for both evening readings and these can be purchased on line or on the door. It’s a 7pm start for Friday’s reading and 7.30pm for Saturday.

Organisers say the feedback from last year was that people wanted events on the Sunday too so tickets are just £5 for the Sunday Panel with award-winning poet Caroline Bird from 12.30pm-1.30pm at Church House.

The festival hopes to appeal to both reluctant poetry audiences and seasoned regulars with the free open mic offering a great way to hear a range of different poets read their work, or to even try out poetry in front of a friendly audience. This is on Saturday from 4.30pm-6.30pm in the Church House with attendees invited to bring their own drinks and refreshments to make it an early evening poetry picnic.

Emergency Poet, Deborah Alma, will be available for a free consultation and poetry prescription in her vintage ambulance on the Church House lawn from midday on Saturday.

Poetry from the featured poets will appear in windows of local shops and businesses in the run up to the weekend.

Festival Curator, Pat Edwards, told us: “We are grateful to the Mary Hignett Bequest Fund and Rotary Club of Oswestry for significant funding this year.

“I feel hugely privileged to be able to curate such a rich programme and to welcome poets of the highest quality. Our reputation as a small, friendly festival is growing and I know some of our supporters are repeat visitors who love returning to Welshpool year after year.”