Chichester's first-ever poetry slam back for more after big debut success

SussexWorld

After huge success in its debut series Chichester's first-ever poetry slam is back for more – and in elongated form with far more performance opportunities.

Transcript

00:00Good afternoon. My name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers. Lovely to

00:06speak again to Charlie Ross. Now, Charlie, earlier this year, you masterminded with Ryan

00:11Burl Chichester's first ever poetry slam, a competitive poetry competition, but a lovely

00:17friendly competition. It went so well. You're back for an extended, elongated version. You're

00:23now into your second season with dates coming up October 23rd, November the 27th, January

00:2929th, going round to a final next May. Why did it work so well in the first year? Do you

00:34think that you are back and expanding? Yeah. Oh, it's all so exciting. We're so thrilled

00:41that it did so well in the spring. And we were so oversubscribed, which is why we've now started

00:46in the autumn rather than waiting to next spring. But yeah, I think it just really took people's

00:51imagination. Because Chichester hasn't seen an event like this before, there hasn't been

00:57a slam competition in Chichester before, there's not any very close by. So a lot of our competitors

01:03in the spring, it was the first time they'd done anything like that and competed in that

01:09way. And then I think it was kind of like word of mouth where poets told poets that this

01:14new thing was happening. And yeah, it really took off, which we're really excited about.

01:19So yeah, we're back in the autumn. We had our first heat of the new season last month. And

01:27yeah, we're running, as you said, until May.

01:31Fantastic. And one of the things that sounds so intriguing, you stress that it's competitive,

01:36but it's a nice competition. It's a warm hearted competition. How can you have a warm hearted

01:40competition? How does that work?

01:42I know.

01:43In which everyone wants someone else to win.

01:46This is it. So you, you, yeah, you, you perform yourself. And then you just enjoy everyone's

01:54poetry and their vulnerability and their humour and everything so much, you get attached to the

01:59other poems and the other people. And so we see people, the competitors in the interval before their

02:05scores have been announced and everything being like, Oh, I loved your poem. And I think you should

02:09win. And I think you scored really well, because you did this really well. And it's just people just

02:15open their hearts throughout the event, and then let everyone in. So you kind of forget that you're

02:21competing and that they're competitors. It's more like a showcase of your feelings and your talent

02:27and your skills.

02:28It really is a supportive environment.

02:31Yeah, 100% is like, you just you go in and you all experience something together. And then you will

02:38like, yeah, it's just, it's so exciting. It's so electric. The atmosphere of these events are just

02:44wonderful. And yeah, as I say, very open hearted, very fun. It's fun. It's great fun.

02:50And you've got a number of heats still to go. How do people enter? Who do they contact?

02:55Yeah, so it's all on Eventbrite, which is great.

02:58But do you need to sign up in advance to take part?

03:01Yeah, so there's two types of tickets you can buy on Eventbrite, you either buy a performing

03:06ticket, or you can buy an audience ticket, you can choose which you want to do. And then if the

03:13performing tickets are sold out, do bring along your poetry, like buy an audience ticket and bring

03:19along your poetry, because sometimes we get people drop out if they're ill or whatever, or can't make

03:23it. So it's always worth coming along anyway. And then maybe you'll be able to get a slot to perform.

03:30Fantastic. Well, congratulations on making such a success of a new venture. It's exciting

03:37stuff for Chichester. Well done, you. Lovely to speak to you.

03:40Thank you so much.

03:40And good luck with the rest of it. Thank you.

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended