It’s 1.45 in the morning and the first day of the 2024 Morecambe poetry festival is drawing to a close. The last poet standing has just been awarded £100 prize money and a bottle of wine.

The opening day kicked off around 4pm at the Kings Arms, a pub which looks out across the spectacular Morecambe Bay. Rowan McCabe, ‘the world’s first door to door poet’, opened the show. It was then only a short walk to the Winter Gardens for a live recording of BBC Radio 4’s Loose Ends featuring Henry Normal, Donna Ashworth, Mike Harding and the Lancaster-based musical duo The Lovely Eggs.

You can feel the buzz of excitement and anticipation as you enter the huge auditorium of the Winter Gardens, a grade 2 listed building opened in 1897. This magnificent venue, soon to have a £2 million facelift, is a fitting main venue for the festival, with the likes of George Formby, Gracie Fields, Vera Lynn, the Who, the Rolling Stones and some elephants, to name but a few, having trodden the boards before.

The evening event was opened by Mike Harding, well-known stand-up comic and folk musician who is becoming highly regarded for his rich and varied poetry. He skillfully incorporates music, landscape, politics and memories into his work. Mike was followed by Henry Normal, making his second appearance of the day. He is a huge supporter of Morecambe, having appeared at all three poetry festivals, and headlining on the opening night of the first one.

By now it's 10.30 pm and many people have decamped to the upstairs room at the Kings Arms for another three and a half hours of poetry. It's a large,comfortable space, and it’s packed for legendary punk poet Attila the Stockbroker, who has recently returned from a successful Edinburgh run and is about to step out on another tour. Attila is a regular donor and supporter of Write Out Loud and a huge fan of Morecambe poetry festival (and of a Premier League football club that I didn’t quite catch the name of.)

Attila is followed by the stunningly good Toria Garbutt who tours extensively with John Cooper Clarke and has published two collections with Wrecking Ball Press. It is after Toria’s performance that I am able to catch a few quick words from Matt Panesh, pictured above, the creator and coordinator of the festival.

With the Kings Arms being  situated only a stone’s throw from Eric Morecambe’s statue on the seafront, it was too good an opportunity to miss. So I asked Matt the inevitable Morecambe question: “What do you think of it so far?” 

“I think it's absolutely amazing,” reflected Matt. “It feels to me like this is a tipping point as far as the poetry festival goes, a watershed moment.To be honest it has taken me by surprise. This is only our third time. I have previously done seven fringe festivals in Morecambe but they have not caught the imagination the way the poetry festival has.The acts we get are incredible.”’

He sees the mix as important, big names who will bring people in, young talented poets who not many people have heard of yet, and some who are just starting out. He concludes:”‘It’s brought people together, poets who are brilliant and need to be seen, alongside our poetry legends like Pam Ayres, Mike Harding, Henry Normal, Lemn Sissay and Attila the Stockbroker, to name but a few, an entire ecosystem of poets together. ‘‘Dundee cake but with more fruit,” as Henry Normal sees it. He referred to Morecambe and its poetry festival in one of his poems as “a hidden northern gem”. 

But by now it's well into the night and time to get some rest. Only 28 hours more of top-notch poetry to go before it all wraps up in the early hours of Monday morning. A truly magnificent event!