Poetry&Words at Glastonbury 2024 Blog is Here!

Poetry&Words at Glastonbury 2024 Blog is Here!

Welcome everyone to the Poetry&Words 2024 blog! My name is Lauren McNamara and I will be one of your performers for this year’s Glastonbury festival along with your resident blogger. This space will showcase all the up-to-date news and announcements around everything Poetry&Words at Glastonbury. Watch this space as we get closer to festival time for the official poster and all the details of the incredible line up for this year’s Poetry&Words stage!

This will be my second Glastonbury festival with Poetry&Words. I had the honour of bringing my show ‘Hello My Name is Single’ to the festival in 2022. While there I did all the usual festival things such as matchmaking on stage as seen below.

But also I got to meet the most amazing community of performers and see some of the greatest poets from not just the UK but all over the world (I am even coming from the far-off land of Limerick, Ireland).

I have been working as a spoken word poet (writing, performing, curating [White House Poetry Limerick], researching) for almost ten years and have performed in cities across the world but Glastonbury may be my favourite place I have ever performed. The passion, the skill, the emotion from these poets and storytellers is something worth seeing. I hope you will come join us as part of your Glastonbury experience. Until then, keep an eye on this space. More information will be coming soon!

Calling all performance poets, spoken word artists, stand-up poets, raconteurs, bards and wordsmiths – Glastonbury Festival wants to hear from you!

Do you want to perform your work on the only stage at Glastonbury Festival dedicated to poetry?

The Poetry&Words stage team are looking for applications from experienced writers and performers, with something riveting, riotous, rigorous and generally resplendent to offer up to the audiences of the world’s biggest greenfield arts festival.

We are looking for poets to perform short sets or low tech shows of up to one hour. Please note that we don’t have the capacity to book groups of more than two or three, and are generally interested in solo acts. We’re looking for poetry that’s performative, comedic, serious, thought-provoking, lyrical – you name it. We’re happy to hear from poetry/music acts too, but please do remember that we are a poetry stage. If you’re a musician looking for a place to showcase your work, then Poetry&Words isn’t for you – though there are many other stages on site you could consider.

Booked performers will receive a ticket for themselves as well as a backstage camping pitch. We do pay a fee, but this is only small. Overseas poets, in particular, should note that we are unable to provide travel expenses.

The deadline for applications is, strictly midnight (GMT) on Friday 1^st March 2024.  We regret that we cannot view any applications received after this, so please make a note of the deadline!

We hope you’ll understand that, given the very large volume of applications we receive every year, we are not able to respond to requests for feedback, or to let every applicant know how they’ve done. Successful artists should hear back from us by two months after the deadline at the latest. Only one application per act will be accepted. Please do not follow up your application with multiple emails checking on progress or making amendments to your application.

If you’re interested in applying, then please read the further information below carefully then email your application to: poetryandwords@hotmail.co.uk

This year’s festival runs from 26^th – 30^th June 2024. To find out more about the festival, go to: https://www.glastonburyfestivals.co.uk/  You can also follow our stage on these sites:

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Further Information

What we are looking for:

• Excellent writers with their own unique voice who will engage our audience 
• Experienced performers who can cope with an audience that will likely ebb and flow as the festival calls them
• Poets with enough material for 2 x 25 min family-friendly sets or 1 x 1 hour show. (Family-friendly means not full of sex, violence or swearing, not that we’re looking for kids’ poets or that you can’t be hard-hitting.)
• People who can commit to being on site from the Thursday afternoon to the end of their second set.
• Solo or duo acts. We don’t book collectives.
• Quick and simple stage set ups. We can generally accommodate backing tracks, provide monitors, vocal and instrument mics, and setups that take 5-10 minutes max.

What we provide;

• A ticket for you to the festival (no guest tickets I’m afraid, unless you have particular access needs that require someone on site to support you, in which case the festival have a process through which an additional ticket can be applied for after you have been booked)
• A camping pitch backstage (You will need to provide your own tent and camping equipment)
• A nominal fee (We are unable to cover travel costs or additional expenses.)

Info needed:

• Name
• Email address 
• About your writing and performance experience (150-350 words)
• Links to three videos of you performing your work
• Any other essential information, eg. passwords to access video files, information about your technical/set-up needs

Checklist:

• Have you provided your email address we can contact you? We deal with poets directly, so please provide your contact details, rather than those of an agent.
• Have you provided three links to your work? These should be video, not audio. Please send links not attachments and make sure these work. If sending links to private, password-protected files, make sure you send us the passwords too.
• Are you performing your work in the videos? We are booking people to perform on a stage, so we need to see what you’re like in that context. Videos of other people performing your work won’t help us there. Equally, poetry films or clips of you performing with a band aren’t a great help to us if you’re applying as a live solo artist. What we’d really like to see is evidence of you performing live on stage in front of an audience just as you would at the festival. It doesn’t need to be a beautiful, professionally edited video, so long as we can see and hear you okay.
• Have you told us about yourself in 150-350 words? We would particularly like to know: what performance experience you have – where, when, how long for; what makes your work interesting/different/special; any awards or accolades you have received for your writing and/or performance

Day 3 of Poetry&Words at Glastonbury 2023

The final day has come but the pace of Glastonbury doesn’t slow and the Poetry&Words stage still has some incredible spoken word theatre shows, poetry performances, and the Glastonbury Poetry Slam 2023 to come!

We kicked the day off the day with a stripped back performance of Sarah Grant’s spectacular hour long show ‘Spark’. A show that is both a personal story about Sarah’s life and the lives of the women who raised her while also being an examination of the injustices done to women through the years who have been branded ‘other’. Accompanied on guitar by talented musician David ‘Dev’ Devereux the combination of music, poetry, and storytelling makes for a sometimes harrowing, sometimes uplifting, but always enjoyable hour of Spoken Word.

Next up was John Osborne, another poet who I have heard a great deal about and was really excited to see live for the first time. Well I enjoyed his work so much on Friday I couldn’t help but go back for seconds on the Sunday. Witty, warm, and meticulously crafted John’s work effortlessly weaves between the fantastical and mundane pulling beauty and hilarity from both. Special mention to his wonderful piece on matching with Kylie Minogue on tinder.

I had to take a minute to mention the amazing work done by Katie Ailes, 2023’s Glastonbury Poet in Residence. She spent the week exploring the festival chatting to folk from the Pyramid stage to the stone circle and everywhere in between. She spent the whole week writing new work inspired by the festival and then performed 7 bran new pieces during her phenomenal feature set. Between poems she shared some of her favourites from her list of ‘overheard at Glastonbury’ and the result was a set that felt like you had cut a cross section into the festival itself. We were lucky to have such a passionate and talented performer lead the charge for poetry at this year’s festival

Closing the stage was the annual Glastonbury Poetry Slam hosted by the dynamic duo of Deanna Rodger and Sally Jenkinson. Twelve poets competing for the chance to call themselves the Glastonbury Slam Champion and for a spot on the Poetry&Words stage at the next festival. Whit such a coveted prize on the line competition was fierce and all 12 competitors gave it their all. There can only be on champ at the end of the day and that honour went to Talitha Wing. It she brings the same energy and we’ll crafted work to the stage next year as she did to the slam then she is certainly one to have on your ‘must see’ list for next year…. we’re all already prepping for next time right?

Day 2 of Poetry&Words at Glastonbury 2023

It was a hot one! Sure, a lot of that has to do with the unrelenting fiery gaze of the sun but it’s at least a little bit because of the incredible talent performing on the stage throughout the day.

Thank God that the tent comes with an abundance of bean bags and shade

Day 2 also happens to be open mic day which was a wonderful opportunity to hear from a bunch of voices completely new to me.

The final performer of the open mic was particularly enthralling, Zoe Mcwhinney. She performed 2 pieces in British Sign Language. If you’ve never seen BSL Poetry performed live I massively recommend you seek it out. To see gesture and movement lead the words of a poem is a unique experience. to convey so much emotion and intention without a voice is something that takes a great deal of skill.

We also had an absolutely astounding end to the day with a trifecta of terrific headliners. First up was the spectacular Kate Fox

Kate brings her spoken word and standup skills together to make something greater than the sum of its parts. She eases an audience into her set with quick wit and Doctor Who references and then takes them with her through wonderfully crafted poems that can cut deeper than they appear. Her openness and honesty on stage make her such an endearing performer that you can’t help but get behind.

Next up was the incomparable Joelle Taylor. Joelle is easily one of my favourite poets writing today. Her spitfire delivery and uncompromising words can leave an audience completely breathless. Her set was made up of pieces from her outstanding collection ‘Cunto’, which in my opinion is a must see show. There are very few poets who can perform with such tenderness and ferocity in equal measure and who can so effortlessly transport you to a new time and place.

Rounding off the stage for the day was the incredible Travis Alabanza. Travis is one of those performers who seems more comfortable on stage than off. Hilarious and happy to challenge their audience, Travis gets into the big subjects of gender and belonging while chatting with the audience like they are all a singular friendly face in the crowd. Transitioning easily into a focused and contemplative reading from their most recent book. The end of their set saw them trade a signed copy of their book for a gruesome Glastonbury story from an audience member.
A lovely last touch on what felt like a familia experience. A talented speaker telling stories for and to the people they love.

There is more to come today so get down here and join us.

Announcing the Poetry&Words 2023 Line-up!

We are stupidly excited to announce the fantastic line-up for Glastonbury Festival’s poetry stage, illustrated beautifully by Scott Tyrrell. It’s going to be so, so awesome!

You can see more of Scott’s work at:

@scotttyrrelldesign

https://scotttyrrelldesign.com/work

Poetry&Words 2023 Line Up: Coming Soon!

We are very pleased to say that we have now made all of our bookings for Glastonbury Festival 2023 and will be making line-up announcements any day now 🙂 Amongst out awesome line-up of award-winning international poets, we will be inviting some brilliant new voices to the stage, as well as hosting old favourites. For poets who want to perform their own work, we will be running the Saturday afternoon open mic and Sunday evening poetry slam. You can sign up for both of these in the tent once we open at 11:30 on the Friday. See you there!

Keep watching our various socials for more updates.

Poetry&Words at Glastonbury Festival:

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/GlastonburyFestivalPoetry
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/PoetryandWords
Blog: https://poetryandwordsblog.wordpress.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/GlastonburyPoet 

Instagram: @glastonburypoet

Calling all performance poets, spoken word artists, stand-up poets, raconteurs, bards and wordsmiths! Glastonbury Festival wants to hear from you!

Our stage wants YOU. Show us what you can do… and then show everybody else!

Want to perform your work on the only stage at Glastonbury Festival dedicated to poetry in all shapes, sizes and guises? Then read on…

Poetry&Words are looking for applications from experienced writers and performers, with something riveting, riotous, rigorous and generally resplendent to offer up to the audiences of the world’s biggest greenfield arts festival.

We operate a fast turnaround stage, so are looking for individual artists and duos who can hit it at a dead run with the minimum of tech support, preamble, props and paraphernalia. We also have stage-time available for one person spoken word shows of up to 1 hour in length, with minimal stage set-ups and technical requirements.

Poetry&Words audience at Glastonbury Festival 2022

Genuinely confident that you will fit this bill? Send us your BEST stuff. We want to be able to see you performing live, so YouTube links or similar would be great. Audio is okay but video holds the most impact. Up to 3 web-links will give us a rounded view of what you are offering. We’re interested in the quality of your writing and performance, not your videography skills, so don’t worry if your video’s a bit shaky – so long as we can see and hear you clearly.  Please send us your bio too – sell yourself in a few well-crafted paragraphs.

Only one application per act will be accepted. Please do not follow up your application with multiple emails checking on progress or making amendments to your application. This clogs the Inbox and makes your name memorable for all the wrong reasons. The info you need post-application will be in the auto-reply. Please read it.

We do pay a fee, but this is only small. Overseas poets, in particular, should note that we are unable to provide travel expenses. Guest tickets are also beyond our power. Booked performers will also receive a ticket for themselves as well as a camping pitch backstage of the Poetry&Words tent.

This year’s festival runs from June 21^st – 25^th 2023. We require artists to be on site from the Thursday afternoon until the end of their last set, but you can arrive any time from the Wednesday.

To find out more about the festival go to: https://www.glastonburyfestivals.co.uk/

The deadline for applications is, strictly, 5pm (GMT) on Friday 3^rd March 2023.  We regret that we cannot view any applications received after this time, so please make a note of this. Don’t miss your chance!

We hope you’ll understand that, given the frankly fantastical volume of applications we receive every year, we are not able to respond to requests for feedback or advice, or to let every applicant know how they’ve done. Successful artists should hear back from us by two months after the deadline at the latest.

Send your application to: poetryandwords@hotmail.co.uk

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Celebrating our 2022 Blogger: Dominic Berry

Okay, so I know we said the previous blog post would be our last for the year, but we can’t really sign off without a nod to our amazing blogger Dominic Berry. Dominic has graced the Poetry&Words stage in a variety of capacities over the years, including a stint as Poet in Residence in 2017, performing a poem in the online festival in 2020, and a short, but very sweet indeed performance outside the tent for the BBC, which is hiding somewhere out there in the ether still. He is unfailingly supportive, unerringly enthusiastic and immensely sincere in his support for all the poets on stage.

Dominic Berry cheering poets on in the Poetry&Words tent

Whether the tent is crammed and buzzing or filled with a smattering of sleepy festival goers, Dominic is always 100% there with the performer, whooping, joining in and generally being the best audience member ever. If we could employ him just to do that we would, but tickets are always in demand and luckily Dominic also just happens to be an amazing poet for both kids and adults (check out his website for more on that), as well as having the ability to transfer that in-the-tent enthusiasm onto the page in our blog. So thanks Dominic – for the blogging, the poetry and perhaps most of all your contagious love of all our wonderful wordsmiths. We love you right back.

Helen Johnson, Poetry&Words stage manager

Slamming on through to next year…

The Poetry&Words tent ended in style on Sunday with the Glastonbury Festival Poetry Slam, hosted by the inimitable Loud Poets, Mark Gallie and Kevin Mclean. The slam is one of the longest running in the country and played a key role in the spread of poetry slam in the UK. (P&W stage manager, Helen Johnson, has a PhD thesis on the topic if you’re interested – under her then name of Helen Gregory 😉 ) As ever, the event was full of top notch performances and wonderful words to laugh, cry, rage and muse on. After three heated rounds, the well-deserving winner of this fantastic trophy designed by awesome poet and artist, Pete Hunter was……

Helen Johnson waiting to present the trophy to this year’s slam winner

….. Tory Shine. We look forward to welcoming Tory back in next year’s festival. Until then, keep that festival spirit alive; keep on loving, creating, and being your wonderful, wonderful selves.

Tory Shine with the Loud Poets and her epic slam trophy

Much love, the Poetry&Words team x

Is poetry actually any good?

Oi oi oi,

Here I am, Dominic Berry, back (not unlike Daft Punk) ONE MORE TIME, for my final blog for Glastonbury Festival 2022 Poetry&Words stage.

Here I am with an unashamedly click-bait title, to which, given who I am and what I do, you might think there is an obvious answer…..

Well….

I was chatting to some of the other poets in our little camping area backstage, and I am not the only one who has sat in the audience at poetry events (elsewhere) and thought……. ‘Is this poetry? Is this what it is? If this is what it is, do I like it? Is this good?’

Whilst allowing for tastes and other subjective factors, I’d say if a person aims to be an artist who attempts to communicate with an audience, and that audience are either bored or not understanding the art with which they are presented, I reckon that gives a strong argument for that poem (maybe that poet) being not good.

I have spent too much time at too many poetry events too full of what I have just described.

However….

Helen Johnson is a super star. Helen, time after time, fills the Poetry&Words stage with immense talent. This year has been no different.

SUPER TALENT!

With every artist who I have seen perform this year, I have fully engaged. What a treat to be immersed in accessible, creative, surprising, political, personal, well-considered words.

I know this sounds gushy, but it make me feel mega humble to be considered worthy to say what I have made up as a part of this crew.

I know that there are a load of us backstage feeling that same way.

Thank you, Helen!

Helen, you are BRILL BRILL BRILL *BRILL!!*

–

So, the slam has happened.

Tori Shine won the slam!

It was a slam full of excellence from every slammer. I want to say a humongous WELL DONE to all who were brave enough to stand on that stage and say their words.

YES, poetry CAN be good, and this slam was epic ace.

Humans full of humanity sharing carefully crafted brilliance.

Personal favourites:

• Jackie Juno’s tree poem,
• Helen’s autism poem
• Tori’s guns in school poems.

Helen Johnson (Poetry&Words’ Helen, a different Helen to the Helen in the slam) will post the trophy pic in a future blog.

Yay for trophies, and yay for Tori being invited to the next Glastonbury for a guest set upon the Poetry&Words stage!

Wooooooooooo hoo!

–

Finally

Desree.

Glastonbury festival Poet in Residence.

Wow!

WowowowowowowowWOW!

If Desree’s stage presence could be bottled and shared worldwide, our planet would be a more intelligent, empathic and interesting place.

A poem completed but 4 seconds before being recited, (according to Desree herself) a celebration of the performance of rapper Mega Thee Stallion was chock full of fun and fantastic energy.

“We drop our arse in prayer”

“It is within us water is made holy”

Talk about powerful lines!

Alongside this, a poem about the actions of R Kelly, and our reactions as the general public to his offences, was everything a poem should be. It fairly questioned me, the listener, on my choices and the need to not silently observe the very real and painful horrors of injustice. An expertly realised piece of protest art – exactly what Glastonbury festival should be delivering – and has done, thanks to Desree, so thank you Desree for your urgent and excellent poetics.

YES!

–

And so…..

I have been (and continue to be) Dominic Berry, and I’d like to thank Helen and the team for trusting me with this blog.

I have loved writing it.

I’d like to sign off, not with my words, but with a new poem from Desree, written as part of her residency, about a small but massive moment at this year’s festival. I love this poem, and I have loved being part of this sensation.

Poetry IS good!

Super good.

OK.

Much love to all.

See you again, friends!

Dom

x

–

TLC

For Maddy.

One hand nursing a paper cup,
the other, an earthquake of a palm.
Trying to navigate the hoards of people,
that have sprung up, on this city of a farm.
But you do not let go,
as you guide me through the crowd.
You are armour close,
squeeze my hand to calm me down.

You know I hate this part,
feels like everyone is in the same place.
But when the crowd grinds to a halt,
you turn so we are face to face.
No scrubs comes on and you start singing,
a private rendition just for me.
We can’t even get close to the stage,
but I’ve got your version of TLC.

To all the partners and friends,
lifelong ones that started today.
Thank you for holding more than our hands,
when we find the festival a little difficult to navigate.
When my anxiety feels like drowning, in the sea of it all
Thanks for turning water into waterfalls