Tag Archives: festival

The poetry of battered moons

12 May

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Swindon’s poetry competition, just turned national, attracted 300 entries. And has a great title.

Winners and commendeds came from across the country to the celebratory event at the Swindon Festival of Literature last night, held at the Swindon Art Gallery and Museum. It was judged and special guested by well-regarded poet Michael Symmons Roberts, with lovely Spanish guitaring by Robert Jacks and uplifting songs by Serene Boulton…

But…

It was all just a bit, well, quiet.

I don’t know. I like a bit of showbiz. Not the silly extremes of vote-athons like X Factor where they take 5 minutes and an ad break to reveal the winners. But, more of a performance. More anticipation. More excitement. Continue reading →

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When did you stop dancing?

12 May

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Yesterday at Swindon Festival of Literature began with a sleep at the Mark Williams Mindfulness events.

Now before you start thinking badly of Mark Williams, I’ll quickly explain that he led the Swindon Arts Centre audience in a meditation or ‘body scan’. Continue reading →

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Are you there?

10 May

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Are you there? Good.

So I went to Alex Horne’s Word Watching at the Swindon Festival of Literature last night, a tad concerned it might be a bit Radio 4, you know, cosy in a Louis Theroux sort of way. And yes, I guess it was. No agit-comic Mark Thomas-style clashes with authority or Frankie Boyle controversy for Alex.

That’s not to say he didn’t get some sound tellings-off. During his quest to get an Alex-original (or rather: re-appropriated) word into the Oxford English dictionary he was nearly banned from Wikipedia for repeatedly changing Natasha Kaplinski’s entry to describe her height as 6’2” tall and removing all references to ‘hands’ and replacing them with new word ‘paddles’. And his knuckles were virtually rapped via email by Only Connect presenter Victoria Coren for being responsible for a deluge of emails to the BBC which insisted that ‘honk’ is a bona fide word for ‘cash’. Continue reading →

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From shattered lives to school wars

9 May

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“Jung and Freud would have rewritten their books if they’d been to Peckham,” said Camila Batmanghelidjh, founder of Kids Company and author of Shattered Lives: Children Who Live with Courage and Dignity, speaking at the Swindon Festival of Literature this evening.

I sat within a near capacity crowd, and listened to this lady, dressed in what looked like a flower garden, in total awe. Not just because she’d worked with the most troubled children but because she was smiling; genuinely smiling. Continue reading →

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Inspired by running and bones

7 May

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Later today after the Dawn Chorus…

In a bonus to the stories enjoyed in a brisk walk around Lydiard Park grounds (lucky old Swindon with this on its doorstep) with international storyteller Rachel Rose Reid, ponies and their cute foals were close up to the fence by the path.

Rachel Rose followed two stories of love with a ‘Just So’ inspired tale of an elephant that ate its own eyes. She made us do the suction sounds as the eyes popped out. I’ve still not recovered. Continue reading →

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Dawn Chorus…almost

7 May

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Okay so I won’t bore you with the details of how long it took me to find Lawn Woods. I worked for a year once in Swindon’s Old Town – and had no idea this expanse of parkland was hiding round the back. It’s well worth a visit and looks especially picturesque in bright May dawn-light. Continue reading →

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We are the Official Chronicle for the Swindon Festival of Literature, yay!

20 Apr
Swindon Festival of Literature launch. Photo by Festival Chronicler

Swindon Festival of Literature launch. Photo by Festival Chronicler

So I’ve just agreed to do this crazy thing.

Report on twenty-nine literature events in twelve days.

That’s twenty-nine sparklingly written accounts, plus any other back stage gossip and thoughts and feelings I can find, complete with illustrative photos, on this year’s Swindon Festival of Literature as the *trumpets herald* first ever Official Festival Chronicler. Continue reading →

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Cheltenham Poetry Festival opens today

18 Apr
Domestic Cherry

Domestic Cherry

Cheltenham Poetry Festival opens today. Current stinky cold willing, I’m off to see my crazy friends, Domestic Cherry and more tomorrow: poetry to the people!

http://www.cheltenhampoetryfest.co.uk/eventdetail.php?ID=6

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Onefest…a bit cold

17 Apr

 

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A very special performance by one of the world’s leading contemporary musicians was given to a small festival crowd in near-freezing conditions in a muddy field outside Marlborough at the weekend.

OneFest – billed as the UK’s first music festival of the year, and the successor to last year’s community pub-related HoneyFest – was headlined by Damon Albarn, the maestro behind Britpop champions Blur, cartoon band Gorillaz and more leftfield works like 2007’s Oriental pop-opera Monkey, Journey to the West. Continue reading →

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