Festival of Firsts Poetry 2012

The second annual Festival of Firsts takes place over the weekend Friday 6^th to Sunday 8^th July.

Ian Nenna has stood down as chair of the poetry steering group and I have been asked, and agreed, to take over for this years festival.

The final line up of events hasn’t been confirmed yet, but some individual details are known. The festival is to open with the wonderful  John Hegley on Friday, I will post details of how to get tickets in due course.

I have been asked to oversee a series of poetry venues in Hoylake, Wirral, on Sunday 8^th. There will be several venues with a rolling program of poetry of all kinds. We want to encourage as much participation as possible.

I already have a core of poets on the steering group and I’m looking for more to help out planning and organising the day.

Open to everyone, you only need to message me on Facebook or e-mail me and I will sort the details with you. My e-mail address is:

mailfordjc@yahoo.co.uk

All volunteers will have the same opportunity to perform, but I’m also looking to have individual venues organised by small groups of volunteers. If this is on the basis of existing venues taking ownership of a venue then that would be great.

I propose to have an open meeting in due course so the wider poetry community can come along and hear, first hand, what is being planned.

I will be inviting poets to register to perform on the day in a few weeks time.

For now  I am looking for volunteers to help out leading up to the event.

There is also the second poetry competition. Full details can be found at:

http://www.festivaloffirsts.co.uk/festival_of_firsts_poetry_competition.html

And on top of that, all profits are donated to Claire House, a hospice for terminally ill children. Last year £2,000 was donated. Why not get involved so we can do more for this charity this year?

Thanks for taking the time to read this message.

Dave Costello