What they say:

"The Ledbury Poetry Festival has real claims to be the best of its kind in England. Without compromise or flashiness, it provides a rare and genuine joining of place, poetry and people."
Carol Ann Duffy

“The programming is skilful and highly adventurous...I have seldom come across a poetry audience with such attentiveness, warmth and intelligence.”
David Morley

Ledbury Poetry Festival offers ten days each summer when the air is thick with declaration and rumination, whispers and shouts of joy.”
Joan Bakewell

 

About the festival

The Ledbury Poetry Festival is the biggest and best poetry festival in the UK. The programme is filled with an eclectic and exciting array of events, featuring poets and performers from all over the world. If you think you know what poetry is, come along and we’ll surprise you. There are live readings, performances, workshops, open mics, music, exhibitions, films, family events, street events, the slam, and much more.

“The Ledbury Poetry Festival is the best in the country.”
Andrew Motion

The Ledbury Poetry Festival organises a wide range of activities, including:

• Britain’s largest Poetry Festival, brimming with events over ten days every summer.

• A substantial Community Programme of literature development events with schools, community and voluntary organisations.

• An international Poetry Competition.

• A year-round programme of activities in and around
the organisation's home of Ledbury in Herefordshire in the West Midlands.

• A poet-in-residence, who provides workshops and one-to-one sessions during the Summer Festival.
The Festival was established in 1997 and grows from strength to strength.

Community Programme
From its inception the Festival has had an extremely active programme of outreach to:

Schools
Community organisations
People with disabilities
Young people
Local writers

The Summer Festival
The Ledbury Summer Poetry Festival is the biggest and brightest in Britain. Featuring contemporary poets, actors and media personalities, the Festival is 10 days full of poetry.
The Festival includes readings, performances, exhibitions, music, walks & talks, workshops and a wonderful atmosphere. Ledbury is unique in its historical associations with poets and is a charming mediaeval market town nestling in the Malvern Hills.
A visit to Ledbury Poetry Festival is a memorable and uplifting experience, valued by many of our audience members who come back to see us year after year.

Poetry Competition
Each year we organise a prestigious competition for new poetry which attracts entries from all over the globe.
Our aim in doing so is to recognise and reward emerging talent, as well as to provide an outlet for the considerable poetry talent which is rooted in our region.
Our poet in residence judges the Competition and entries fall in to one of the three categories: Adult, Young Person or Child. Each category is awarded three prizes and the winning poems from each year are given virtual publication through appearing on the Poetry Competition  page of our website.
Previous judges have included Ruth Padel, Matthew Sweeney, Jo Shapcott, Mark Doty, Gillian Clarke, Don Paterson, Paula Meehan and Theo Dorgan.

Support
The Festival would like to thank all the people and institutions who provide support, especially the Arts Council of England, local authorities, foundations and charitable trusts.
The Ledbury Poetry Festival is very much an organisation firmly built on the voluntary support and freely given time of the many local businesses and residents who help make the Festival such a success.