Port Eliot Festival isn’t the first magnificent party to happen on the St Germans estate - not by a long shot. It sprang from the ashes of the near-mythical Elephant Fayre, which rousted about the old place in a long-lost age when Health & Safety didn’t come into it - the ’80s. So, two special festivals, sharing a site and a spirit but separated by 30 years. On the Elephant Fayre bill, The Fall, The Cure and Siouxsie and the Banshees rubbed up against poetry legends like Adrian Henri, Ivor Cutler and Heathcote Williams. History was made.
And so, when The Poetry Stage made its Port Eliot debut last year, it felt like a return to some of the festival’s core values. Curated by Luke Wright and Rosy Carrick, themselves marvels of the poetry world, it rocked the fest and came out on top as one of your absolute favourite stages.
Heathcote once wrote this haiku about the festival…
A year in the making
Four days to devour
A long time to forget
…which gave us an idea!
So, in association with the Poetry Stage team, we’re giving you the chance to win two tickets to the festival AND have your work read on the Poetry Stage.
All you have to do is write a haiku or a limerick about Port Eliot Festival. You can enter below, or on our Facebook post or Twitter post if you want the world to see. Entries will close on the 13th June and one winner will be chosen from the entries across all three platforms by Luke Wright and Rosy Carrick.
But remember, as the other Port Eliot regular John Cooper Clarke memorably put it:
To convey one’s mood
In 17 syllables
Is very diffic
