A poetry slam final is being held on Midsummer’s Day at the Royal Albert Hall next month. The poetry slam organisation Hammer & Tongue has been running slams around the country all year, and Saturday 21 June will see winners of regional battles in Brighton, Bristol, Cambridge, Camden, Hackney, and Oxford compete to take the title.

Steve Larkin, from Hammer & Tongue, said: “People coming to the slam final at the Royal Albert Hall will be blown away by the variety and virtuosity of UK spoken word. For every Kate Tempest and Dizraeli, there are a plethora of poets who are coming from all sorts of different backgrounds – from comedy, music or hip hop – and doing incredible things.”

Kate Tempest, winner of last year’s Ted Hughes award for innovative work with her show Brand New Ancients, and who has just released a debut solo album, Everybody Down, will be the featured artist at the event, which will be hosted by Larkin and Sam Berkson.  

The slam final will take place at Albert Hall's Loading Bay pop-up venue, deep under the hall itself. It starts at 1.15pm, and goes on until around 10.30pm. More details