European Poetry Festival 2020, the UK’s largest celebration of continental poetry, was postponed from April 2020 to October 2020, optimistically. In the place of 12 live events, which would’ve featured over 100 poets, created loads of brand new literary performances and collaborations, building new friendships in the sincere and genuine enthusiasm of new cross continental communities, and pushing the envelope in what is possible in live literature, the fest has commissioned new video-poems / kinetic-poems / online readings to whet appetites. Made to measure by poets across Europa who would have been attending in person.
Delve into poetry here. (or click on the image)
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European Poetry Festival
The European Poetry Festival is the biggest consistent celebration of continental poetry in the UK, ever. For six years as a festival, and a decade as an event series, over 1000 European poets have performed new collaborations across the British Isles. The festival celebrates, in the UK and beyond, the grand resurgence in avant-garde and literary poetry that has marked the 21st century across Europe and it aims to not only innovate what a live poetry experience might be, but to inculcate community and engagement between poets across the continent, as well as between new audiences and complex poetries. At the heart of this is our collaborative model, our Camarade events. Here pairs of poets, visiting or based in the UK, create brand new works for each event, free to create as they wish. Each event often features multiple pairings, and so our events become energised, engaging playgrounds for experimentation as well as friendships.
Our sixth festival took place across spring 2023, with 11 events across the UK, witnessed by near enough 1000 people. www.europeanpoetryfestival.com/2023
