Poetry Slam

Slamming is competitive poetry where the emphasis is on good writing, good performance and warmth of audience response.

Slamming began in America. It was invented by construction worker/poet Mark Smith in August 1986. The first slam was held at The Green Mill Lounge, Chicago. He invited the audience to play a major role by asking them to judge the poets, using scorecards. Mark Smith says: “The slam is about poets performing professionally to an audience they care about, allowing that audience to enjoy themselves, while presenting them with the most profound and heartfelt poetry the poets can muster.”

How Do I Enter?

All you have to do is email cath@purbeckvalleyfolkfestival.co.uk with your name and desire to enter …and then turn up to the first heat armed with poetry!

How It Works at Purbeck

At Purbeck we’ll be having two first round heats on Saturday afternoon in which poets will have three minutes to give us their best. Judges (picked from the audience) will choose three winners from each of these heats to go through to round 2.

Round 2 then allows six poets to go on to perform their second poem. Again, judged by members of the audience, the poets with the highest scores will go on to perform two poems each in the grand finale.

The final takes place on Sunday afternoon and consists of two rounds of poems. Each finalist will perform a poem each with scoring and then a second poem that will be scored separately. The poet with the highest combined score will be crowned Purbeck Valley Folk Festival POETRY SLAM Champion 2018!

Your host… Shaun Gary Palmer

…winner of the the Purbeck Folk Festival Poetry Slam 2014.