Garyswordz

I have attended numerous music festivals, and some Mind Body Spirit festivals , but never a Poetry festival of over a days’ duration. I decided that Morecambe was the perfect opportunity to redress that omission. What follows is not a review, more a capricious record of some fond memories.

I had never been to Morecambe before. It was far enough away (120miles) to be an adventure but close enough to be a comfortable journey. And over four days there were  bound to be some poets  I liked. There were.

I travelled alone, but with the poetry community you are never alone, and I knew that I would soon find like minded souls. I was right.

Thursday night was an informal welcome night in the Bath pub. It was a large boozer with a small stage in the corner. I wondered how the locals would react to their boozer being occupied by poets. The pub slowly filled, and filled, any locals engulfed ,till around 250 people squeezed in. “Perhaps we should have poetry nights every night! quipped the landlord.

The totemic, charismatic, organiser Matt Panesh opened  proceedings serving up – a course  of tantalising poetic hors d’oeuvres. It was a bit like seeing Deep Purple open their set with “Smoke on the water” as the winner of last years local poetry competition and joint winner of this years’, Trystan Lewis, produced a scintillating start combining socially aware poetry with physics  (you had to be there). Rosemary Drescher and Hannah Wood subsequently caught my ear before we decamped to the upstairs of the nearly next door pub, an old night club.

“We’re running a little late” joked Matt introducing the strapline for the event. ( who cares I was there for five days!). I had come for the event, not names and to be surprised, and delighted- which i was.

On Friday the event proper commenced including the first evening show at the magnificent, full, 800 seater Winter Gardens.

John Hegley topped the bill with a reliably assured set, but it was his support , Jan Brierton, from Ireland who shone , performing extensively from her book “Everybody is a poem”.  Catch her while you can, a great poet and a thoroughly delightful person in person. She gave generously of her time to me.

We then decamped to the Kings Arms for Luke Wright who came on stage at around 10.45pm to a “lubricated” audience- he was in his element. Luke is an extraordinary performer and  blazed through  an incendiary set combining stand up comedy, poetry, and errr, Luke Wright! Unquestionably the  performance of the weekend.

Which posed a problem for the fine Lisa Moore, a gifted poet of a more considered,cerebral style who had to come on stage at 11.45pm … she did well, but through no fault of her own, “The time was out of joint”. I felt for her, and told her as much after.

Graham Parker the pub rock great once declared that :“Saturday Night is dead.” Not in Morecambe it isn’t.

Henry Normal opened the Winter Gardens in the evening, urbane, loquacious and eloquent. Nigel Planer stole the evening. Very wittily he came on stage and informed us how much older we were all looking since he last saw us… he romped through a failed relationship with an older woman, two failed marriages and his return to the original woman in a wonderful, humble, self-deprecating performance that Neil would have been proud of.

At the Kings Arms, Geordie  Rowan McAbe ripped it up, and my old friend  Jonny Fluffypunk fluffed delightfully.

Sunday afternoon was an absurd smorgasbord of talent at the Kings Arms. Manchester’s  Rowland Crowland triumphed alongside John Darwin. Heathers Moulson and Sullivan alongside Anna Somerset and Sharon Green performed as a quartet, “Into the Blue” was a deeply affecting poem about a walk in a bluebell wood to remember a deceased friend

In 2011 I attended “Hit the Ode” a poetry night in Birmingham. I started chatting with an extraordinary young woman who used to live in Cambridge, as I did, who then went on to perform an equally extraordinary set. Her name was Hollie McNish. I had an identical sense of impending greatness when I met Louise Fazackerly, who effortlessly combines personality, poetry, pith and pizzaz. Her dazzling set melded pathos, humour, incisive observation and fun. One of my favourite music albums is by the Verve- “Northern Soul”- it sums her, and her poetry up perfectly

Yet at the Winter gardens it was not over.  Clare Ferguson  Walker blitzed the opening slot, Michael Rosen offered more sedate reflective fare and inexplicably did not reference his outstanding new children’s book “Oh Dear, Look what I got” the natural successor to “Bear Hunt”, but to be graced with his presence was enough. Three of my grandchildren now have a signed dedicated copy each – thanks Michael!

What is the Morecambe poetry festival like? When buying a festival t shirt I discovered that they were out of stock of my size. “Don’t worry” said a volunteer who was the same size as me, you can have mine in an unopened packet…. A word of advice to newcomers. I arrived on the Thursday and left on the Monday morning, essential if you want the full experience and can afford the time.

It returns 18/20th sept 2026, I shall be there, will you?