Excitement building ahead of Morecambe Poetry Festival

Here’s all you need to know ahead of this weekend’s word fiesta.

Appearing at this year’s festival will be Mike Harding, Pam Ayres, Donna Ashworth, Alistair McGowan, Lemn Sissay MBE, Henry Normal, Thick Richard, Raymond Antrobus, Tony Walsh, Kate Fox, Emma Purshouse, Steve Pottinger and Chris Lynam. 

Taking place at the Winter Gardens, the second stage will be at a new venue, upstairs at The King’s Arms.

The BBC is also bringing two of its leading Radio 4 spoken word and performance shows to the festival. Loose Ends will take place Friday 20 September at 6pm and The Verb presented by Ian McMillan will take place on Saturday 21 September 5.45pm to 7pm. Both events are free to attend, with weekend ticket holders receiving first preference.

Friday 20 September

In the main Winter Gardens venue, the doors open at 5pm for BBC Loose Ends presented by Nihal Arthanayake, followed by the hot ticket pairing of festival friend Henry Normal with Mike Harding at 8pm-10pm. It’s Henry’s third time at the festival, with the writer and TV producer calling it "the biggest and best new poetry festival in the country, possibly the World, maybe even the Universe."

For the Loose Ends show, Nihal will be joined by Henry Normal, Donna Ashworth and Mike Harding along with executive chef Lisa Goodwin-Allen from the nearby Northcote, with music from the Lancaster based musical duo The Lovely Eggs.

The opening night continues with Attila the Stockbroker (10.15pm) and Toria Garbutt (11pm) followed by the ‘They Shoot Poets Don’t They’ competition running to 2am.

Saturday 21 September

On Saturday, Big White Shed gets things started with workshops and a word walk in the morning from 10am - midday. The action at the King’s Arms kicks off at midday with an Open Mic, followed by Robin Ince (1pm), Clare Ferguson Walker (2pm), West Midlands Takeover (2.30pm), Des Mannay (3.30pm), Lee Nelson (3.50pm), Dominic Berry (4.10pm) and Tony Walsh (4.30pm) before closing with another Open Mic session, sign up on the day. 

Raymond Antrobus will be doing his kids show at Morecambe Library at 3.30pm with children from the earlier session invited to read their poetry. This is a free show. 

BBC’s The Verb presented by Ian McMillan starts the action at Winter Gardens from 5.45-7pm. The headline show is from the UK’s bestselling poet Donna Ashworth paired with comedian Alistair McGowan at 8pm followed by performances from the festival’s first ever competition winners; national winner Christine Michael and local winner Trystan Lewis.

Multi award winning Raymond Antrobus takes to the stage again at the King’s Arms at 10.15pm followed by Chris Lynam (11pm) and the Last Poet Standing (11.45pm-2am). 

Sunday 22 September

Open Mic warms things up again at the King’s Arms from midday, followed by Helen Ivory (1pm), Martin Figura (1.20pm), Lisa Moore (1.40pm), Mohamed Gassara (2.20pm), Kate Fox (2.40pm) and Vera Chok (3.45pm) closing with some more competition winners from Morecambe.

National treasure Pam Ayres - whose work spans six decades - will headline the Winter Gardens with a show at 5pm, followed by nation’s favourite Lemn Sissay returning to the festival with his new best selling collection and support from Speaking Volumes, at 8pm. 

A tribute to poet Jackie Hagan, who died earlier this year, will see a whole gaggle of her poet mates take to the stage at 10pm, followed by the last Open Mic of the festival from midnight to 2am. 

This year’s Morecambe Poetry Festival Anthology features 105 writers, and is available for £9.99 plus p&p direct from festival organiser Matt Panesh. Proceeds go back into the following year’s festival. 

Weekend passes £65 standard / £80 premium. Individual show tickets are £20 standard / £25 premium. 

Morecambe Poetry Festival is supported by Waterstones, T S Eliot Foundation, Morecambe Town Council, Eden Project Communities, Wordsworth Grasmere and the Arts Council. 

Keep up to date on Morecambe Poetry Festival Facebook.

Tickets available from Skiddle at Morecambe Poetry Festival tickets