Information

Gorilla Events is a project with the aim of getting people into poetry and improving the poetry scene within Sheffield and South Yorkshire. We promote local poets for free and we are proud to shout about how talented these poets are. Gorilla Poetry consists of a group of professional poets who are immensely talented and have passion for the Gorilla Events project. Our poets have a wealth of experiences ranging from school debates, outdoor events, festivals and are also involved in creating events both locally and all over the UK. Sam Rules Each poem must be of the poet's own construction Each poet gets three minutes (plus a ten-second grace period) to read one poem If the poet goes over the time, points will be deducted from the total score(half a point for every ten seconds) Five judges will then score the poet and the points will be added up.\\The scores will range from 0.0 to 10.9, with the highest score being 54.5. The best scoring poet will go through to the next round. To ensure impartiality, judges cannot be related in any way to the poet If the audience disagrees with a judge’s decision on a poet’s scoring, the audience get involved by either booing or cheering as the scores are being read out. Judges will have a final chance to change their scores at the end of each round if they become swayed by the audience No costumes or props Each poet builds up their score by competing in slams throughout the year. The scores are tallied on a leader board on the website, showing all participants their current position- encouraging them to compete more! At the end of the year, all their points are added together for the final score. The poet with the top score will go straight to the final. Poets from the 2nd to 7th positions will go the semi-final. The semi-finalists will compete in a slam until there are only three poets left. Those three poets, together with the overall slam winner from the year, will compete in the final slam. They will battle for the distinctive title of “The Grand Bard of Sheffield” and receive a commemorative trophy. They will also be encouraged to be involved in more Gorilla Events projects with the aim of promoting poetry to the community.

What we do

All poems are copyright of the originating author. Permission must be obtained before using or performing others' poems.