Now our feet have finally hit the ground and we would like to extend an extra thank you to everyone who played such a huge part in the success of Cheltenham Poetry Festival 2022!
From high energy hip-hop in the magnificent chapel through to thought-provoking poetry in the beautiful Shush bar and lively music in quirky Smokey Joes – each and every event had its own, very special atmosphere.
Highlights included:
- Fiona Sampson’s revelatory talk about the poets of the newly formed Gloucestershire School
- a celebration of The Poetry of the Gloucestershire Landscape (featuring Angela France, Emily Wills, Juliette Morton, Zoe Brooks)
- a talk about the Dymock poets featuring Rowan Middleton and Colin Bancroft
- the legendary Cheltenham Poetry Festival Slam – ‘ Peaky Barders‘ – hosted by Clive Oseman and Nick Lovell
- a tribute to the Horovitz Family hosted by Adam Horovitz
- readings by Seren poets Paul Henry and Eric Ngalle Charles
- hilarious chap hop from Professor Elemental
- a powerful performance by Leo Saunders of new songs inspired by director Anna Saunders’ collection Feverfew
- an exploration of American and English poetry by American poets Lois Jones and Elena Karina
- the mesmerising one-man-show All the Stuff by Phil Bowen
- an exciting gig with musician Dan Hartland
- a student and tutor Showcase at the University of Gloucestershire
- plus guest slots from Duncan Forbes, Emily Wills, Juliette Morton, Derek Healey, David Clarke, Tim Relf, Duncan Forbes, Chris Gage, Sally Jenkinsonand many more!
All this after running world-wide poetry events online all year featuring poets including Jason Allen-Paisant, Chelsea Dingman, Elisabeth Sennitt Clough¸ Sean Borodale, Rachel Long, Kitty Donnelly, Roy McFarlane, Rae Howells, Matt Merritt, Chase Dimock and many more !
We have also been busy running an extensive community programme – and over the last few months we have offered inspiring empowering, inspiring and literary boosting workshops to organisations including Maggies Cheltenham,National Star and P3 Cheltenham.
Thank you to our incredible volunteer team, to our warm and responsive audiences, our poets and our sponsors – John Oldham Festival Wide Sponsor, The Arts Council England, Platinum Sponsor- The University of Gloucestershire, I Plus, Instant Insight, The Mayflower Restaurant and to our Life Patrons Annie Ellis, Marilyn Timms, Howard Timms and Lucy Heuschen.
We are now working on next year’s festival and outreach programme and have some very exciting things planned. We can’t wait to share our plans with you!
