Announcing… The Purbeck Folk Festival 2013 POETRY SLAM. Are you a budding poet? Enter the Poetry Slam. Steve Biddle (winner of the Bournemouth Festival of Words 2012 Slam) will be hosting a slam throughout the weekend. The first heats will take place on throughout Saturday afternoon with the semis and grand final (on the new Fire Stage) on Sunday afternoon. If you’re a poet and you fancy going head-to-head against other poets in a friendly competition, all you need to do is send us an email in advance stating your interest… …and come armed with your best poems! First heats are one poem each (3 minute time limit) and semis and grand final consist of 3 x 3 minute rounds.

FESTIVAL POET  - Paul Tobin is Festival Poet for this year’s event. Message from Paul’s festival blog:  “What will I be doing you ask? Well, I shall be running two poetry workshops and presenting the results of this on the Open Mic Stage on the Sunday. I want to try and capture the essence of the festival in its many facets and to do this I shall be talking to everyone I can about their experience, what makes the festival special for them. I shall also be reading around the festival site. If you are there, find me and present me with the voucher below and you can have your own personal poetry recital!”