Morecambe's third annual poetry festival will feature headline performances by Pam Ayres, Mike Harding, Henry Normal and Lemn Sissay as well as the UK’s best selling poet Donna Ashworth, Manchester favourite Tony Walsh and impressionist Alistair McGowan whose first collection of poems will be published this year.
The three day event will also see performances by less well-known names and recordings of popular BBC Radio Four programmes Loose Ends and The Verb.
The festival’s founder, Matt Panesh, said: ‘I am absolutely delighted with the line-up. In total we have 65 poets on the bill over the weekend and it promises to be a really good festival.
‘The poetry festival mixes grass roots poets with legends, so there is always a wide variety of poets to see. We have a second stage, like at a music festival, and we want to give poets of all backgrounds and levels of experience a chance to perform.’
Matt, who has been involved in the arts as a performer, producer and director, launched the Morecambe Fringe Festival in 2017 and also runs a Film and Television in the resort in November. And in March next year he will launch a comedy festival.
He added: ‘This is a town built for entertainment, there used to be 30 theatres in Morecambe, but the arts have suffered here. Hopefully, through these festivals, we can help restore Morecambe’s reputation as a place for performance and entertainment.
‘When the Eden Project opens, that will be a three hour experience, we want visitors to have things to do the other 21 hours in the day.’
Matt launched a community theatre company in Morecambe and hosts community poetry nights and writing workshops at the Playhouse – a former barber’s shop in the West End which is now a theatre space with a 32 seat capacity.
Headline acts at the festival will be on stage at the Winter gardens, with the second stage upstairs at The King’s Arms. Throughout the event, open mic sessions and free writing workshops will give new poets or those trying out new material the space to write and opportunities to perform. Shows and workshops aimed at the younger audience will run until 3pm both days.
Loose Ends, which now co-hosted by Wigan-born Stuart Maconie, will be recorded on Friday 20 September 6pm to 7pm and will be aired the next day. Yorkshire-born poet Ian McMillan hosts The Verb, which will record its show on Saturday 21 September from 5.45pm to 7pm. Both events will be free to attend, with holders of festival weekend passes to be given the first option before tickets are made available to the general public.
Matt said: ‘We're delighted. The shows feel like a natural fit with the rest of the programme, as the festival continues to build. It's really great to offer the town a chance to see these shows for free.’
And Sue Roberts, executive editor for Loose Ends and The Verb, added: ‘Morecambe Poetry Festival features both high profile talent and phenomenal new names. We can’t wait to bring our audience some of these with our own Radio 4 twist.’
* Morecambe Poetry Festival takes place from September 20-22.
