Festival extras! Pop-up happenings, installations and family events!

Sweetshop of Words – Friday 2 and Saturday 3 July, Barrett Browning Institute, 11am – 4pm, Free 

Sally Crabtree has been delighting audiences around the world with her colourful and quirky performance poetry, music and live art.

Her latest installation is a sweetshop of conceptual confectionery which offers each member of the public a small gold coin which they can spend on just one thing at the counter and it explores the notion of choice in our lives-“Choose well. Your choice is brief, and yet endless” as Goethe says. It has the feel of a fairground stall with the excitement that each person goes away with a ‘prize’ so to speak. Of more value perhaps however is that each sweet that they choose comes with its own quirky, philosophical inner layer of meaning which they unwrap, depending on what they choose.

And for children… Come and fill a jamboree bag with your own creations inspired by the Sweetshop of Words –  including lyrical lollipops, glass sweets and pop a pop a poem balloons!

Saturday 3 July

Heart, My Heart: Live Poetry Jukebox – presented by Adie Mueller and Trui Malten
An interactive performance installation combining poetry, visual art and performance
Suitable for ages 5+
High Street – 10 to 12:30 and 1:30 to 4 pm

My Heart, My Heart: Live Poetry Jukebox is an interactive performance installation that presents an exciting, novel concept of engaging (new) audiences with poetry through visual art and performance. It works like a music jukebox, only with poetry!

The poems are represented by miniature artworks in glass jars that are displayed on illuminated shelves. Audiences are invited to look at the jars, choose one they feel particularly drawn to and l will then recite the poem to them by heart.

My Heart, My Heart: Live Poetry Jukebox offers moments of beauty, calm, contemplation, respite, reflection and reassurance. “What a profound effect 3 mins of poetry can have on your day.” 

Insect Safari – presented by Fetch Theatre and Infamous Arts
A fantastical performance that celebrates everything that creeps and crawls
Suitable for ages 5 to 105
Ledbury Walled Garden, NEW LOCATION! Ledbury Rec, near the basketball court, Lawnside Road, HR82AE, 2pm – 2.45pm, FREE

Our storytellers weave a magical spell as they take you out on safari from their amazing bug hotel leading you into a fantastical world of creatures that creep, crawl, fly, flutter and buzz. Incredible stories and facts from across the world burst into life in this stunning touring show with original music, an ingenious set and featuring a host of incredible puppets.

Our safari is inspired by a wealth of fascinating and astonishing insect facts and international stories that voice the myths and folklore of insects from the farthest reaches of the globe and closer to home. Take heed of the wisdom of the world’s oldest spider who roamed the lush, tropical swamps of the West Midlands over 30million years ago and join us in celebrating the wondrous world of everything that creeps and crawls.

3 West Midlands poets Casey Bailey, Emma Purshouse and Romalyn Ante, have helped give voice to our narrators and cast of insects.

Sally Crabtree Poetry Bingo

6pm – 6.45pm, Barrett Browning Institute, Free

Quirky and charming, Poetry Bingo is just like normal bingo but instead of cards with numbers on, the audience get cards with the titles of poems on. If any of these poems are performed they can tick them off and whoever ticks them all off first is the winner! Some of Sally Crabtree’s poems are performance poems – like Dream Shoes with its light up shoes or Dancing Words which has a cartwheel in it. Some are accompanied by music and others are simply wonderful poetry!

Friday 9 July

Sadly, this event is cancelled, but will be filmed and shown on the Festival YouTube channel:
Young Writers Collective in the Walled Garden (outdoors/bad weather inside)
2pm – 3pm
An opportunity to hear and witness a selection of young people’s poetry written in supported workshops with practitioner Toni Cook as part of the Festival’s Community Programme. Feedback from previous years: “This is important poetry from people who might not ordinarily be showcased”, expect raw, direct and beautifully crafted language conveying life as it is.

Saturday 10 July

Spellwright, near the Market House, 10am – 4pm, Free

What would make your life better? Take home a Spell written just for you by fabled bard Jean Atkin, and supplied on aged paper in a fine italic hand. You get to press the seal into the red sealing wax yourself. Spells undertaken for brand new babies, for a sister abroad, for invisibility, for making an Owl speak or whatever required.

Poetry Machine, near the Market House, 10am – 4pm, Free

Beth Calverley will fire up her marvellous poetry machine and craft beautiful, intuitive poems on her vintage typewriter. Beth hosts a warm, welcoming conversation with each person, couple or family… within minutes you receive the original typewritten poem to take home with you and remind you of this magical experience.

Poetry Party with Herefordshire Stanza

8pm – 9pm, St Michael’s and All Angels Church Courtyard, FREE

A relaxed and friendly gathering, with plenty of opportunities to mingle and chat. Plus poetic interludes offer a chance to hear poems by the Herefordshire Stanza, and to contribute your own poem, or a poem you love. Drinks available for donations.