Ledbury Reporter Herefordshire

Poetry festival 'a vintage year'

From the Ledbury Reporter, first published Thursday 17th Jul 2008.

ORGANISERS of this year's Ledbury Poetry Festival are hailing it as a vintage year.

Ticket sales are still to be totalled, but festival chairman Peter Arscott said he expected them to at least equal last year's figure of 25,000.

This means that the festival has hit an audience high for two years in a row, after sales dipped slightly for several years, after the foot-and-mouth crisis.

Mr Arscott said: "I think this year's festival was a great success, with lots of buzz. It was a vintage festival, - one of the best.

"The programme was excellent and I liked the mix of poets from different parts of the world."

Mr Arscott's personal highlights included a reading by the American Samuel Menashe, whom he described as "a great poet".

Mr Menashe was recently been awarded a prestigious Neglected Masters Award from the Library of America.

Mr Arscott also mentioned the Cider Supper as a personal favourite.

This took place on the festival's opening night and brought together a number of poets and performers, including Jackie Kay, Carol Ann Duffy and the celebrated Lithuanian poet, Marcelijus Martinaitis.

The 2008 Festival listed 65 events in its programme, from Carol Ann Duffy's opening reading on Friday, July 4 to a recital of the Odyssey on Sunday July 13.

Mr Arscott said he was pleased that the programme was a quality programme with something for everyone.

Popular children's and family event included Michael Rosen's A-Z of poetry, with Jackie Kay and Francesa Beard, and the celebration of insect life, Buzzing!, with Anneliese Emmans Dean in the Market Theatre.

Mr Arscott took over the chairmanship of the festival from Douglas Brooks earlier this year, after Mr Brooks moved to Cheltenham

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