Festival
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Chairman’s Report – Ledbury Poetry Festival 2018
Another ambitious and creative year saw the board of trustees keeping a steady grip on the wheel of
the Festival schooner as it sailed through all the waves, large and small, that any organisation has to
deal with. At a time when audiences are thinking twice about any form of expenditure and with a
more testing and competitive funding scene to face up to, the Festival did experience a dip in ticket
sales which was undoubtedly compounded by the many free events that we offer as much as by the
more thought-provoking but challenging events put on. Despite this, the Board is more than
confident that the future holds so many great ideas waiting to be implemented that the programme,
both the July Festival and the year-round community and school programme, can only get better
and will confirm Ledbury as the UK’s biggest and best poetry festival.
Peter Arscott
Report on Ledbury Poetry Festival 2018
The Festival featured an eclectic range of events, from a poetic tour of eight Ledbury heritage sites,
Tishani Doshi and Pascale Petit combining poetry and dance, Walled Garden Family Events to a
reading and discussion in celebration of Martin Luther King. It featured a good number of high
profile poets including Wendy Cope, Benjamin Zephaniah, Jackie Kay, Hollie McNish, Sinéad
Morrissey, Jo Shapcott, Caroline Bird and Liz Berry. Zaffar Kunial was poet in residence. Michael Palin
performed a tribute to Adrian Mitchell. Miles Jupp and Chris Difford chatted about their ‘desert
island poems’ and Henry Normal mixed comedy and poetry. The Festival featured musical events
with Bob Stanley, James Yorkston, Alexis Taylor plus a poetry and music collaboration between Paul
Henry and Brian Briggs. Events with particular local relevance included Stories from the Hop Yards, a
Friends of the Dymock Poets presentation of Voices from the Great War, Poems and Tilley Printers
and Found Voices with Sara-Jane Arbury.
An ambitious programme of American poets included Major Jackson, Linda Gregerson, Mark Doty,
Marie Howe and Jericho Brown. Other international poets included the German poet Jan Wagner
with his translator Iain Galbraith, Versopolis poets from Croatia, Poland and France/Brittany and
Colombian poet George Mario Angel Quintero. The Festival also presented a Ukrainian Translation
Duel and a Sign Language Translation Duel, exploring the intricacies and mechanics of translation
and comparing the choices translators make.
Ledbury partnered in an Arts Council funded project called Talking Transformations. Two poets,
Deryn Rees Jones and Rafa Gawin wrote poems inspired by the theme Home and the poems went
on a journey through translation following migratory patterns. (Home by Deryn Rees Jones was
translated into French and Spanish and Dom by Rafa Gawin was translated into English and
Romanian). This project was showcased and explored through an exhibition of artist films inspired by
the poems, two poetry and art translation workshops, two schools’ workshops and a discussion
event with Deryn and Rafa.
The Ledbury Emerging Poetry Critics participated in a number of events, offering new perspectives
on Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Wallace Stevens and Emily Dickinson. Plus an event exploring The
Role of the Poetry Critic. Feedback from one survey respondent: “I thought this was an excellent
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idea for an event, ably chaired by Sandeep Parmar. The subject was so fascinating I would have
happily attended a longer event on this topic with all the emerging critics involved.”
Emerging poets featured in 20 minute events, in the Ledbury Poetry Competition, National Poetry
Competition and Eric Gregory Readings. The Festival showcased John Masefield High School students
and Foyle Young Poets reading alongside established poets. Workshops and the Slam were as
popular as ever. Events in partnership with magazines: Modern Poetry in Translation celebrated
their LGBTQ focus and Poetry Wales explored Poetry and Ritual. Discussion events highlighted the
relevance of contemporary poetry through a range of themes including mental health, climate
change, sexual violence, queer language and class politics. The Festival held talks on poets including
W.H. Auden, Derek Walcott and an immersion day on Wallace Stevens’ poem The Man with the Blue
Guitar.
An array of family and street performances throughout the Festival
included the Ledbury Celebration Day on the High Street; The Live
Poetry Jukebox combing poetry and art; Dr. Seuss and Box of
Delights inspired activities in the Walled Garden; and Sally Crabtree
in the Butcher Row House Museum bath!
The Festival championed its community outreach programmes in
events such as Community Showcase; Being Heard, featuring
young people from Hereford’s supported housing project SHYPP;
and 21st Century Mental Health discussion drawing on the work
LPF is doing with mental health charity MIND. Ledbury’s shops and
businesses featured poetry artwork from the Festival’s Poetry
Paradise Garden, a large-scale community poetry and art project.
In all it was a Festival brimming with innovation, creativity and community involvement: our
volunteer base is constantly expanding, and they seem to work tirelessly on the Festival’s behalf. The
Festival welcomed four interns and six Spanish students, here to help in the delivery of the Festival.
One of the abiding images of the Festival is one of these students, Esther, captivating the crowds
with an impromptu Flamenco performance in the Ledbury Celebration street party on the final day.
Photo: Paul Ligas Photography
The Community Programme – overall participants 1,354
The Festival’s large-scale community artwork and poetry project “Poetry Paradise Garden” involved
nearly 350 participants in 15 community and residential care settings across the county. Nursing
homes were contacting us asking to take part. The project boasted an increase of over 100 more
participants, and 5 additional settings from 2017’s previous project. Art and poetry is a powerful
combination: it can stimulate memory and foster social interaction. Poetry Paradise Garden included
“sensory poetry” for people with multiple and profound learning disabilities.
For the first time, artwork from the Poetry Paradise Garden project was displayed in shops and
businesses in Ledbury. This was a response to shopkeepers who fedback that they wanted to take
part in the Festival, and the shop windows display, but didn’t have the time to prepare their own
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artwork. What could be better than the Festival providing shopkeepers with artwork from its
community programme? Participants’ work was also displayed in an exhibition in the panelled room
of the Master’s House, in the Burgage Hall, and in outdoor places throughout the town. The outdoor
displays formed part of Ledbury in Bloom, closely co-ordinated with the Festival, and gratifyingly the
town was awarded “Gold”.
Festival projects continue to reach out to other vulnerable groups across the county. The Festival has
poets working with people suffering from chronic pain (NHS), in women-only settings, and with ex-
offenders (probation service). New projects for 2018 include “Pictures and Poetry” at Hereford
mental health charity, MIND, and poets working with Hereford Young Carers in Hereford, Ross and
Leominster. The MIND partnership proved so fruitful that the Festival held a special event “The
Power of Words: 21st Century Mental Health” featuring a panel of national mental health experts
and advocates. The Young Carers are a particularly hard to reach segment, all the more so now that
their funding has been axed by Herefordshire Council. The Festival was pleased to provide the
groups with a platform for protest: a “Save Our Clubs” banner incorporating artwork and poetry
from the groups was displayed on the railings of the Burgage Hall for the duration of the Festival. We
will continue to work with them as long as the continuation of the groups allows.
The Festival’s Community Programme targets areas of need in the county that fall within the top
20% of national indices of multiple deprivation, with groups running in the forgotten corners of the
county. The important youth strand with SHYPP (Supported Housing for Young People Project) in
Hereford continued, culminating in the “Being Heard” Festival event. One audience member wrote:
“This combination of traditional poetry, rap and film conveys important messages. It is vital to hear
voices that might not normally be showcased otherwise”.
The Festival held a “Community Showcase” event, extended to 1 ½ hours, to allow participants from
the Community Programme performance opportunities. The event was graced with first-time
performers from disability charity Echo with very moving renditions of their poetry created with
poet Carol Graham.
The Festival’s Community Programme includes step-up opportunities for budding poets from
workshop settings with supported performance events at the summer festival, and throughout the
year. There were poetry salons, poetry slams and open mic’s, including for the first time in 2018, a
Women’s Open Mic held at Hereford International Women’s Day. The Community Programme is a
thriving and vibrant part of the Festival’s year round work and is touching many hundreds of lives.
The Schools’ Programme - overall participants 2,045
The schools’ programme in 2018 saw the expansion of the Festival in a Day offer to schools. Each
day took place at Hellens Manor and involved a performance, three workshops and a pupil
showcase. 9 days were delivered in total with 11 schools, 517 pupils and 7 different poets. Teacher
feedback was excellent: “As a class teacher, it was a pleasure to see my children so fully engaged in
different types of poetry. Particularly with a boy-heavy class, this can be a challenge but the poets
effortlessly engaged and inspired them to write their own and group poems. Seeing the confidence
of the children as they recited their poetry showed how proud the children were of their own
compositions.”
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The Festival continued its creation of digital poetry trails. Schoolchildren in three separate projects in
Ledbury, Bosbury and Much Marcle worked with poets to create poems around heritage buildings
and unique locations. The poems were then turned into short films and QR codes with Mark
Sanderson from Herefordshire Computing Support, very much in the style of two previous projects,
Ledbury Benches (2016) and Ledbury Doors (2017). In Ledbury, the project was called “Found
Voices” in partnership with Joined Up Heritage. The Bosbury Bards poems are showcased on the
Ledbury Poetry Festival website, along with other work that the project inspired. Residents and
visitors to Ledbury, Bosbury and Much Marcle can access the performance poems by using a smart
phone or tablet to scan the QR codes that can be found at each location. Students were involved in
the making of the films and had to ensure their poetry worked well across the digital media used.
The Festival continued its schools work offering an inset day for schools with “renowned and
inspirational poet educator” Jacob Sam La Rose. Jacob also worked with schoolchildren from
Whitecross High School, and Aconbury PRU whilst in the county. The poet in residence scheme for
Aconbury PRU continued with Raymond Antrobus returning for the second time. Afternoon sessions
with year 9 pupils at Weobley High School, which has close links with Aconbury PRU, ensured that
Raymond’s time was used effectively.
Brenda Read Brown continued as Poet in Residence for John Masefield High School, where she
focussed on developing group performance and building oral confidence and performance over the
course of our sessions. The Ledbury Primary School Writing Club has continued with guest
appearances from visiting and local poets, while the Young Shakespeare performance again proved
popular with schools, performing Macbeth to 184 pupils.
The Festival also partnered in an exciting project called Talking Transformations exploring what
‘home’ means at a time when notions of ‘home’ in Europe are becoming more fluid, being
challenged and reshaped by unprecedented migration. Poets led three workshops for Year 7-11
students at Pershore High School and Whitecross High School exploring ‘home’ through language,
poetry and art. Students experimented with language and art to explore what ‘home’ means to
them and what it might mean to others. Students produced straight-forward literary translations,
drawings and paintings, two rap versions, a dance, a mini-drama, two performance pieces including
spoken word and mime as well as a host of new poetry, and these were showcased in a special
interactive exhibition during the Festival.
The schools programme is continuing to innovate and expand, with an exciting project in the 2018
Autumn term on the Holocaust and Kindertransport. Poet Aviva Dautch lead workshops offering
pupils the opportunity to read and write poems inspired by the Kindertransport, using the idea of
journeys and what we leave behind. This theme is relevant today, when unprecedented numbers of
refugees find themselves compelled to leave their homes and journey to another country.
New! Ledbury Emerging Poetry Critics
2017-8 saw the founding of the Ledbury Emerging Poetry Critics scheme to encourage diversity in
poetry reviewing culture and support emerging critical voices. Open to budding BAME poetry critics
resident in the UK, the scheme offered an intensive mentorship programme, including workshops,
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one-to-one mentorship and critical feedback on the writing of a poetry review. The scheme has been
phenomenally successful with reviews and articles written up in national press such as The
Telegraph and The Guardian, as well as in highly esteemed poetry publications such as The Poetry
Review, PN review, and the Poetry Book Society. (See Appendix C Press Coverage)
Audiences (1/09/2017 – 31/08/2018)
Well, a scorching hot summer and a well performing national football team may have impacted the
attendance figures for the 10 day summer festival! Still, they numbered a very healthy 9,403. It was
also to be expected that we would not reach the dizzy heights of 2017 numbers as that was our 21st
celebratory year. However the overall audience figure has remained buoyant with higher numbers of
participants in the community and schools’ programmes resching a very respectable 12,997, still well
over the 10,000 watershed.
As last year, audiences who completed the Audience Finder Survey reported a very high net
promotional score with 82% of visitors very likely/ extremely likely to recommend the Festival,
against a national average for 70% for literature arts organisations. In other comparatives, the
Festival rates highly. Of 369 responses (last year 550):
Audience rating on Ledbury Poetry Festival National Average (Literature)
Value for money 67% Very Good 60% Very Good
Quality of Offer 69% Very Good 74 % Very Good
The Whole Experience 76% Very Good 69 % Very Good
Box Office, Audience Finder and Survey Monkey data show our audience is drawn mainly from the
local area, but there is a very large number of the highly engaged Metrocultural segment which is
largely unseen outside London (9% of respondents compared with 2% for other arts organisations in
the West Midlands). This is a phenomenal achievement considering the Festival’s rural location, and
shows the national pre-eminence of Ledbury Poetry Festival.
Online Audience
Visits to the Festival website have increased to nearly 41k. As with last year, Google analytics show a
high proportion (61%) of visitors are aged 18 – 44. There has been an increase in web visits from the
older age groups, possibly due to the fact we trialled a new box-office system with vastly optimised
on-line ticket buying, and this directed some of our regular audience to the site. The trend continues
for increased access to the site from mobile devices (phones up 6%, tablets up 2%, desktops down
7%). With our technical advisor David Hewitt, we ensure the site’s functionality across all devices.
Whilst upgrading the website to host the new ticket system, we took the opportunity to revamp the
website appearance. It now includes a headline menu of posts which are constantly renewed. This
enables us to quickly make announcements of the many Festival activities and news items and keep
the content fresh.
The Festival’s facebook page is nearing 2,700 likes. This is below our target, and possibly reflects the
fact that facebook continually alters its metrics, and that it is losing ground in the fiercely
competitive social media stakes. It is still a highly useful tool for getting the Festival’s message out –
particularly so when linked with local organisations and community pages. The Festival’s twitter
page has seen a massive rise, at over 5,800 followers. It is now our go-to social media channel, with
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a highly active cohort of young poets and users, and was particularly effectively employed with the
national Ledbury Emerging Critics campaign.
Similarly, the Festival’s You Tube channel has also seen a massive increase in views, up 80% to 5,400
views compared with the same period last year. The most viewed video is still Frieda Hughes with
Tony Hoagland a close second. This reflects the value of the Festival films as an archive: there have
been a large number of views of the several Tony Hoagland videos since the sad announcement of
his untimely death at the age of 62. The videos are unrepeatable and a valuable legacy of
performances of poets.
Podcast listens number 5,692 in the above 12 month period, a lower figure than the
same period last year. However this is counterbalanced by the large increase in
listens/downloads of Poetry Salon podcasts which number 1313 and which are
again proving to be valuable archive material. Pleasingly, the Festival has just been
placed in the top 30 international poetry podcasts by Feedspot.
The Festival audience is invited every year to participate in an online poetry submission – rather like
an online open mic, focussed around a particular theme or prompt. This year it is the “Troubadour of
the Hills” project in collaboration with Malvern Hills AONB, with poet Jean Atkins in the troubadour
role. Previous years have been “Poetica Botanica”, “The Poetry Orchard” and “Fantastic Beasts”. It’s
a great way to interact with the digital poetry community and often results in a festival event and/or
anthology.
Board and Patrons
At the helm of the Trustees sits Peter Arscott who as a co-founder of the Festival has immense
expertise and knowledge. Retired banker David Ingram has served loyally as Festival Treasurer, and
has been replaced as Treasurer by newcomer Simon Scott. David, however, still remains on the
Board. We have said goodbye to community poet Sara-Jane Arbury who nevertheless still plays a key
role in the Community Programme and welcomed David Punter from the Bristol Poetry Institute,
joined by Lindsay Jackson, proprietor of Ledbury Books and Maps Bookshop. The remaining strong
and committed board members are Neil Astley, editor of Bloodaxe Books, Ursula Owen, founder of
Virago Books and the Free Word Centre, practising poet and Youth representative Jasmine Gardosi,
arts expert Peter Salt, John Masefield Society member Chris Noel, and local representative Nigel
Falls. We benefit from Patrons who care passionately and advocate tirelessly on the Festival’s behalf,
most particularly Adam Munthe whose generosity and hospitality at Hellens knows no bounds, and
ex-Minister for the Arts Mark Fisher. Other patrons include former Poet Laureate Dame Carol Ann
Duffy, Sir Roy Strong, Hay Festival’s Peter Florence and actress Juliet Stevenson.
Volunteers and Interns.
To the Festival’s tireless volunteers we say “Thank You”. Clearly, delivery of the Festival relies very
heavily on volunteer involvement, and we are hugely indebted to the commitment of many – for
driving, accommodating, helping at Hospitality, stewarding and event managing. The ranks of
volunteers continue to swell due to active recruitment and the Festival’s genuine concern that all
volunteers are valued and given an enjoyable time with the Festival. At Christmas, all volunteers are
invited to evening of entertainment and poetry in a gesture of thanks away from the busy-ness of
the Festival, and to hear a select preview of the festival ahead, and it is always an enjoyable informal
occasion.
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Hospitality 240 hours
Accommodation 179 nights (last year 194)
Event Managers 33 managers managing 113 events
Drivers 150 hours
Window Competition Co-ordinator 50 hours
Office Admin – 3 volunteers all year round 500 hours
In addition, we had 6 Spanish students for the duration of the Festival helping in many varied ways,
but most particularly in face-to-face surveys and interviews required by Arts Council England’s
Audience Finder.
Funding
Arts Council England are the Festival’s main funders. For the core programme, the Festival is
indebted to the Elmley Foundation. The Pennington Mellor Munthe Charity Trust generously
supports the Festival’s innovative schools’ programme, and support for the community programme
comes from the Garfield Weston Foundation (whose 60th birthday celebrations at Buckingham
Palace the Festival attended). The Versopolis project continues with Creative Europe Funding. The
Foyle Foundation generously supported the Festival’s sector-leading programme for new writers.
A diverse range of funding sources are found every year through bespoke applications, and we are
very grateful to every trust, charitable foundation and individual sponsor for supporting the
Festival’s valuable work. Please see Appendix B for full list. New funding initiatives for 208 included
the Festival’s Unity Lottery, and the sale of bespoke Emma Bridgewater mugs.
Ledbury Town and Environs
Relationships with many organisations and individuals within the town were strengthened by the
hugely successful Town Party held on the last day of the Festival. This ambitious event required
months of planning and many hours of meeting time with Ledbury Town Council Events Committee,
Ledbury Food Group, Ledbury Fringe, Ledbury Rotary and Ledbury Town Traders. In addition to the
fantastic music, poetry and dance entertainment put on by the Poetry Festival, and the food produce
market by Ledbury Food Group, the day included much local engagement. The net of involvement
reached far and wide befitting the careful preparation and level of investment put in, and was a truly
cohesive experience.
In addition to the above groups, the Festival has partnerships with Ledbury Places (historical
buildings), Ledbury Civic Society, Ledbury in Bloom, the Market Theatre, Ledbury Baptist Hall, St
Michaels and All Angels Church, and Ledbury Community Hall.
The Festival endeavours as far as possible to use local services and champion local producers. Local
bread, cheese, meats, poetry pork pies, cider, apple juice, strawberries and flowers are donated to
hospitality and the Poets’ Cider Supper. The local wine merchant sells wine at cost. The town’s two
independent bookshops are fully utilised as book sellers with one a valued Festival venue. Many
town hotels are either Festival or Fringe venues, or both! Local heritage manor house Hellens is a
beautiful setting for Festival events, having superb facilities for Festival residential courses, and
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playing host to a number of visiting poets. We believe that the Festival is an exemplar for sustainable
rural, economic and cultural activity.
Poetry Competition 2018
The Ledbury Poetry Festival Poetry Competition has been an important first step in many poets’
careers. Jacob Polley, winner of the 2016 T.S. Eliot Award, started his career with a win at Ledbury in
2001. Other previous winners include Maitreyabandhu (2010), Jonathan Edwards (2014) and the
2017 T.S. Eliot shortlisted Jacqueline Saphra (2007). The Competition is increasingly international
with the previous two years won by Americans Jonathan Greenhause (2017) and Miller Oberman
(2016). The Festival prides itself on a lasting relationship with its competition entrants and winners:
many are asked back for performances, residencies and workshops.
The 2018 competition judge Nia Davies wrote: “I feel honoured to have had a special private view of
the kind of things people are thinking about through the medium of poetry right now. People are
deeply concerned about homelessness and the earth, but they’re also funny and kind and loving.
The winners and runners up were the poems that, as well as taking a sideways glance at a subject,
also stretched and invigorated language and the form of the poem itself”
To read these poems, with judge’s comments, and poet biographies, please see
http://www.poetry-festival.co.uk/ledbury-poetry-competition/
Third Prize: Robbie Burton UK, ‘Deeds’
Young People 12 - 18:
First Prize: Annie Fan, UK, ‘essay on grief/ a holiday’
Second Prize: Georgie Woodhead, UK, ‘Collins’
Third Prize: Lauren Edwards, UK, ‘The Night You Attacked Me’
Children 11 and under:
First Prize: Aurora B Blue, UK, ‘Tinned Life’
Second Prize: Maxwell Heavens, UK, ‘Six Ways to Look at a Word’
Third Prize: Mrugakshi, India, ‘Forgiveness to Forgiveness’
Further comments and the winning poems can be found on the Festival website. We would like to
thank T Newydd, the National Writing Centre of Wales, for supporting the competition, as they
have done for many years.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS PATRONS
Peter Arscott (Chair) David Ingram Dame Carol Ann Duffy Adam Munthe
Neil Astley Chris Noel Ursula Owen OBE Juliet Stevenson CBE
Sara-Jane Arbury (retired) Ursula Owen Mark Fisher Lawrence Sail
Brenda Read-Brown (retired) David Punter (new) Peter Florence MBE Naomi Shihab-Nye
Nigel Falls Peter Salt Lord Gowrie Penelope Shuttle
Jasmine Gardosi Simon Scott (Treasurer) Jackie Kay Sir Roy Strong
Lindsay Jackson (new) Gerry Isaaman OBE
All directors of Ledbury Poetry Festival Limited are also trustees of the Registered Charity.
FESTIVAL ARTISTIC DIRECTOR FESTIVAL MANAGER FINANCE MANAGER
Chloe Garner Phillippa Slinger Sandra Dudley
FUNDING & SPONSORSHIP BOX OFFICE POETRY TREASURY
Sandra Dudley Sandra Dudley COMPETITION & ACCOUNTS
Chloe Garner Freya Henderson Sandra Dudley David Ingram
Phillippa Slinger Anita Scott Jane Curry Sandra Dudley
John Rose Hilary Davis Simon Scott
ARTISTIC DIRECTION Phillippa Slinger YEAR ROUND COMMUNITY
& PROGRAMMING YEAR ROUND SCHOOLS WEBSITE PROGRAMME
Chloe Garner PROGRAMME Chloe Garner Phillippa Slinger
IT Chloe Garner David Hewitt FRIENDS OF THE FESTIVAL
David Hewitt Phillippa Slinger Sandra Dudley
PRODUCTION OF SUMMER FESTIVAL:
Angela France John Rose Phillippa Slinger Sandra Dudley
Ann Dex Lottie Mapp Bethany Rivers Marie Harris HOSPITALITY STEWARDS Brenda Read-Brown Nancy Goodchild Sue Hamblin Sandra Dudley
Carol Graham Neil Astley
Danasamudra Whitelaw Peter Arscott Freya Henderson Becky Fincham Bigmouth PR
Emily Wood Peter Carter Katharina Engel Chloe Garner
Freya Henderson Peter Diamond Lottie Mapp Phillippa Slinger
Graham Sterry RIck Sanders Emily Wood
Hilary Benoit Rosemary Diamond
Jo Taylor-Greig Trisha Bannister
COMPETITION Three Counties Bookshop
GRIPS WALKS AND CYCLE RIDES Vicky Baker Ledbury Books & Maps
Jakub Lukaszonek Bella Johnson
Paul Graham Sandra Dudley
Pat Strauss John Rose
SPONSORS AND FUNDERS The Ledbury Poetry Festival acknowledges with
grateful thanks the vital support of Arts Council England (West Midlands) and the donations,
sponsorship and assistance of the following:
The Year Round
Pennington-Mellor-Munthe
Ledbury Poetry Festival, for
helping to fund the
HCA student Ruth Cameron
Your Name On It
APPENDIX C National newsletter coverage/ social media mentions The Ledbury Poetry Festival 2018 PR campaign was created and managed
by Becky Fincham, Director of Bigmouth Book Events, Festivals, Tours &
PR www.bigmouthpresents.com and ran from October 2017 to July 2018. The PR strategy built on
the momentum of Bigmouth’s 21st anniversary PR campaign in 2017 and worked to raise the
festival’s profile in the literary and national media and to drive ticket sales. The 2018 Ledbury Poetry
Festival PR campaign generated coverage for the Ledbury Poetry Festival 2018, the winners of
the Ledbury Poetry Competition 2017 and the Ledbury Emerging Poetry Critics scheme, working with
the scheme's founders Sandeep Parmar and Sarah Howe to secure coverage and commissions for
the mentees to review poetry in the national media.
PR Campaign highlights
An audience of over 40.5 million poetry and culture lovers were reached directly through print,
broadcast and online media coverage for Ledbury Poetry Festival 2018 over 10 months (excludes
social media impact)
Over 35 media outlets covered the festival through individual artist interviews, written features,
festival previews, listings and more including The Guardian, The Observer, The Telegraph, Sunday
Times, i newspaper, Financial Times, TLS, BBC Radio 4, BBC 6Music, BBC Radio 3, talkRADIO, Woman
& Home, Country & Town House, Waitrose Weekend, The Lady, Wales Arts Review, Compass, Poetry
News, Culturised.
Kunial, Sinéad Morrissey, Joelle Taylor, James Yorkston, Bob Stanley, Anna Woodford on topics
ranging from Michael Palin’s love of Adrian Mitchell’s poetry on BBC Radio 4’s Loose Ends to Zaffar
Kunial as the festival’s Poet in Residence to Bob Stanley and James Yorkston on the relationship
between poetry and songwriting on BBC Radio 6Music.
Features written by Ledbury Poetry Festival 2018 artists on topics including How To Read A Poem,
Race and Poetry Reviewing, Language Journeys, #UsToo, Cynhebrwng Aer / Air Burial by poets
ranging from Jade Cuttle to Mererid Hopwood to Deborah Alma.
What the media said about Ledbury Poetry Festival 2018:
“If poetry is your passion, try Ledbury, in the Malvern Hills near Hereford. Somehow, festivals seem
to thrive in small and pretty towns, and Ledbury hosts a glorious 10-day early-summer immersion in
poetry of all sorts, with a good international line-up of names to savour and discover. The
atmosphere is quieter and perhaps more intense than at Hay; definitely recommended for
devotees” Financial Times
'It’s a brilliant thing the Ledbury Poetry Festival, I’ve been there a few times, it’s a brilliant place...
go to it if you can” Stuart Maconie, BBC 6Music
“It’s 10 days of amazing poets…and all sorts of performers. It’s incredible” Nikki Bedi, BBC Radio 4
Local News coverage: The Ledbury Reporter, Hereford Times, Worcester Evening News, The Malvern Gazette, Ledbury Focus, BBC radio Hereford and Worcester, Welsh Border Life, Live 24 Seven, Broad Sheep
Poets/ Performers Appearing at the 2018 Festival
Raymond Antrobus Jill Abram Deborah Alma Sara Jane Arbury Neil Astley Jean Atkin Tomica Bajsi (Croatia) Rob Barratt Jo Bell Dzifa Benson John Bentley Liz Berry Caroline Bird Marilyn Birks Matt Black Uilleam Blacker Brian Briggs Jericho Brown (US) Judy Brown Elizabeth Jane Burnett John Burns Miles Chambers Mary Jean Chan Maya Chowdhry Sarah Churchwell Polly Clark John Clegg Matthew Clegg Jane Commane Wendy Cope Josephine Corcoran Sally Crabtree Sarah Crown Jade Cuttle Margaret Dallow Ailbhe Darcy (Ireland/UK) Nia Davies Noèlia Díaz-Vicedo* (Spain) Chris Difford Tishani Doshi (India/Wales) Mark Doty (US) Sasha Dugdale Jonathan Edwards Sarala Estruch Paul Farmer Martin Figura Mark Fisher Iain Galbraith
Patrick Gale Chloe Garner Rafa Gawin* (Poland) Raine Geoghegan Roz Goddard Dawn Gorman Linda Gregerson (US) Richard Gwyn Emma Hammond David Harding Paul Henry Jake Herbst Maryam Hessavi Mererid Hopwood Marie Howe (US) Nasser Hussain Lesley Ingram Major Jackson (US) Lucy Johnstone Miles Jupp Kateryna Kalytko (Ukraine) Jackie Kay Vanessa Kisuule Cecilia Knapp Srishti Krishnamoorthy-Cavell Zaffar Kunial Rachel Lambert Lachlan MacKinnon Sue MacLaine Sabrina Mahfouz Maitreyabandhu Nick Makoha John McCullough Kurly McGeachie Jamie McKendrick Hollie McNish Sasha Mitchell Kim Moore Sinead Morrissey Peter Moser Martyn Moxley Adie Mueller Henry Normal Ursula Owen Michael Palin Judith Palmer Danny Pandolfi John Parham
Sandeep Parmar Michael Pennington Manuela Perteghella Pascale Petit Kathy Pimlott Anna Pincus Clare Pollard Kyra Pollitt David Punter George Mario Angel Quintero (Colombia) Nisha Ramayya Lou Raoul (France) Peter Raynard Brenda Read-Brown Deryn Rees Jones Nico Reznick Sam Riviere Shauna Darling Robertson Roger Robinson Steve Rooney John Rowlands-Pritchard Tristram Fane Sanders Anna Saunders Richard Scott Elisabeth Sennitt Clough Jo Shapcott Tony Sharpe Iryna Shuvalova Micha Sobol (Poland) Bob Stanley Alexis Taylor Joelle Taylor Rhys Trimble Jennifer Lee Tsai Ricarda Vidal* Jan Wagner (Germany) Jo Watson William Wootten Samantha Wynne-Rhydderch James Yorkston Benjamin Zephaniah *Talking Transformations project featuring poetry in translation from Romania, Poland, France, Spain and the UK
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Appendix E Audience Figures 2018 Including concessions and comps, not including performers’ passes
Ticketed events: 2018 2017 2016 Readings 1,090 1,934 Performances 1,117 1,651 Workshops 130 144 Talks and Discussions 848 1,098 Musical events 453 306 Walks and Tours 119 75 Family Events 166 134 Films 159 126 Total ticketed events 4,082 5,468 4,908 Free Events: Free ticketed events – included in above figures
292 535
103 -
95 -
20 min readings actual 323 500 est Free Walled Garden Family Day* 800 800 A Great Ledbury Celebration* and other free street events
4,000 5,000
Participants Poetry Salons est 175 175 Community Programme** 1,354 968 Schools’ Programme** 2,045 1,395 TOTAL 12,997 15,278 9,829 Digital Audience Twitter (cumulative followers) 5,800 5,000 Facebook (cumulative likes) 2,700 2,500 Website (visits per year) 41,000 40,000 Podcast (listens per year) 5,692 10,800 You Tube (views per year) 5,400 3,000 TOTAL DIGITAL 60,592 61,300 n/a *these free events were clicked for a ½ hour period and estimates extrapolated **mostly actual attendance figures, with some estimates
16
Appendix F
Ledbury Poetry Festival Ltd. Draft accounts for 12 month period ended 31/10/18
Previous Year 2017 Current Year 2018 Income £ £ £ £
Box Office Sales 45,649 37,633
Public Funding 69,778 75,670
Private Funding 81,590 90,064
Friends Subscriptions 2,925 2,641
Sundry Income 2,425 5,179
Emerging Critics 0 6,827
E-Merging Creativity 14,409 13,811
215,714
202,265
Restricted: -