StAnza International Poetry Festival, St Andrews

This March the annual StAnza Poetry Festival will take over St Andrews for five days, offering readings, performances, discussions, film, music and drama, exhibitions and installations from all points on the poetry spectrum. The programme is its usual vibrant self, but this year's festival has had a shadow cast over it in the form of the closure of the Byre theatre.

“We were all stunned and dismayed that the Byre’s internal issues led to the doors closing just weeks before it would have been the usual festival hub, venue for more than half of the 103 events, exhibitions and installations on the programme, and desperately sorry for their wonderful staff,” says StAnza director Eleanor Livingstone, before clarifying that the festival is definitely still happening, albeit with some minor alterations. “We’ve been able to fit more events into some of our other regular venues, or to go back to venues we’ve used in the past... the festival will go ahead in terms of the core programme online and in our brochure. A few ambitious trimmings might have to be reined in a bit – we probably can’t do live webcasts of events this year – but there’s only been one absolute casualty, an exhibition in the Byre of Ian Hamilton Finlay silkscreen prints.”

With this good news confirmed we turn our focus to StAnza's line-up, which features some noteworthy headliners, including the chance to see Liz Lochhead, Mark Doty and Gilian Clarke reading from and discussing their work. StAnza has always been about more than simply the big names however, with a strong focus on diversity and participation, as Eleanor is keen to point out: “We have 78 poets coming to perform, last time I counted, plus about 50 other writers, musicians, actors, visual artists and film makers. And of course we’ve a strong interactive programme, events where anyone can take part, three open mics, our slam and masterclass, workshops and one-on-one inspire sessions.” Furthermore, the international roster of this year's festival has reached new proportions. More than a dozen countries are represented, “from Singapore to Australia to Canada to Iceland, with Ireland, Palestine, Finland, Latvia, Germany, Romania, the Netherlands, Norway and Belgium in between, plus seven poets from Wales in our first ever focus on Welsh poetry.”

Pulling out a specific highlight is therefore a difficult proposition. When prompted, she reels off the following: “We’ve got our strongest ever spoken word and performance line-up this year, with major names such as Luke Wright, John Hegley, Hannah Silva and Jacob Sam-La Rose joined by the likes of Ghostboy from Australia and sound/experimental performer Eiríkur Örn Norðdahl from Iceland and by Rachel McCrum and Harry Giles, leadings lights from the Edinburgh spoken word/performance scene... If I had to pick one, I’d say Saturday night, 9 March, at 8pm with John Hegley and Jacob Sam-La Rose, followed by Luke Wright MC-ing the slam at 10.15pm.”

The breadth of these events give this year's StAnza an inclusive feel and should interest poetry enthusiasts of all levels. We recommend getting yourself to St Andrews with plenty of time, before heading to the Town Hall, which will now be the main festival hub. Here attendees can orientate themselves at the festival desk, with up-to-date information on venue changes, directions and the like. However, StAnza expects to have finalised and accurate information, reflecting any changes that have been made, on their website shortly. Check www.stanzapoetry.org for this, as well as the full programme, and the usual information on accommodation and travel.