The 2019 Melbourne Spoken Word & Poetry Festival

Last year we ran the first Melbourne Spoken Word & Poetry Festival, in May 2018, with over 35 events over two weeks, heaps of events were either sold out or packed out. With no government funding, and just the generous support of donations and a few sponsors we pulled it off, and think that Melbourne, with already so many festivals, needs a festival dedicated to the artforms of spoken word and poetry.

This year, with the festival set to kick off in July, we need support to pay for upfront costs of getting the festival off the ground, for printing and a couple of venue bookings, before we're able to sell tickets. Our print program goes to the printers in a couple of short weeks, and without this money, we're not able to use our program to reach new people and bring in wider audiences to the festival, something that people rely on for the success of their events. Our program supports and promotes independent poetry and spoken word events as part of our program, with over 50 events this year, many of which are free and with open mics, this festival supports poets and events often ignored by mainstream and funded arts organisations.

Larger donors and sponsors can have their logos or ads in the program, or just chat to us about what that could mean.

If we hit our target of $2,700, it will cover printing and venue hire for our workshops.