Poetry Slam a Wham

The very first Poetry Grand Slam of Audlem took place on the opening night of the massive Audlem Festival of Music and Arts.

It was a project about which I had my misgivings as to how it would go down, so far away from the Edinburgh Fringe happenings.

But, by 7.30pm on Thursday, the Bridge Inn was packed and I'm delighted  to say, with lots of new faces.

We had the wonderful Emma Purshouse as the compere and organiser to thank for a great line up of sixteen poets. They each were given three minutes to deliver their works – with a loud raspberry if they went beyond their allotted time!

A panel of X-Factor judges marked each for performance, writing and audience reaction.

After two very happy hours of presentation, the winning poet was chosen – as per our photo – and was presented with a cash prize and the very first Audlem Poetry cup.

Even better, the runner up was Jessie of the Square, Audlem, at her very first big public reading with wonderful poems of her her own – a lady of great age and of great talent.

The Poetry Slam is now a new jewel in the Festival crown and we will be having the event in our next offering in 2013.

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