2010 Canterbury Festival Poet of the Year!

Over 150 poems submitted this year, 37 poems have now been selected to be included in a published booklet available to entrants and the general public.

The Competition Final will be held on Thursday 7 October – where the shortlisted poems will be performed and the Poet of the Year title decided.

The event will take place in the Dominican Priory, Canterbury, from 8pm – and will whet the appetite for the beginning of this year’s Canterbury Festival, which takes place between Saturday 16- Saturday 30 October.

Guest Judge Poet, Maggie Harris, '2009 Poet of the Year' Dorothy Fryd, and Nick Hunt, Member of the Canterbury Festival Friends Committee who founded the Competition in 2007 will inroduce the shorlisted poets vying to become the '2010 Canterbury Festival Poet of the Year'.

The Final combines the poetry readings with live musical entertainment by Musician Richard J. Lewis, and is one of the community literature highlights of the year.

Tickets £5 - available from the Festival Box Office 01227-787787

Poetry booklet £3 - available on the day or from

the Canterbury Festival Office

Christ Church Gate, The Precincts, Canterbury, Kent, CT1 2EE

Tel. 01227-452853 - e-mail: sylviane@canterburyfestival.co.uk

The Friends committee organise several events throughout the year, and strive to offer something for all tastes. In a typical year there are Gala Balls, musical evenings, special visits, concerts, recitals and talks. Proceeds raised from the events go directly towards sustaining the Festival's development and programming ambitions.

Join TV and West End Actor RICHARD CALKIN and fellow stars of stage and screen for …

Previous Events

Open Garden with Music

Sandling Park

By kind permission of the Hardy Family

After a miserably cold and windy week, Saturday 15th May dawned bright and sunny for the Open Garden event at Sandling Park, only giving into showers towards the end of the afternoon.  The 25 acres of rhododendron, azaleas and specimen trees glowed with colour and the whole experience was heightened by the music drifting across the grounds as you walked.

Four musicians from Christ Church University played thoughout the afternoon  in different locations around the garden. Tom Radford (soprano/alto saxophone), Lizzie Wingrove (alto saxophone). Sarah Deller (tenor saxophone) and Amy Bucknell (baritone saxophone) regaled us with everything from Duke Ellington and Charlie Parker via Gershwin and Mancini to Mozart.

It was a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon and raised £857 for the Festival.

Saturday 15 May 2010

Sandling Park, Sandling, nr Hythe

A Night in Little Italy

Cameo Opera

What a warm welcome on a misty February evening to the first event of The Friends’ 2010 calendar.A full house had an immediate sense of anticipatory excitement for the fun evening that was to follow.                                            

Superbly presented colourful platters of ante pasta on tables, evocative of Italian festivities, were followed by our first taste of Cameo Opera’s repertoire, the five singers entering to the strains of ‘Funiculi Funicula’, setting the atmosphere for what was to follow, with a varied programme ranging from grand opera to Broadway, brilliantly accompanied by pianist Peter Bailey.

Following the Italian feast, the Barber of Seville administered a wet shave to a member of the audience, whilst giving a fine rendition of Largo al Factotum.

The evening continued with a delightful variety of familiar operatic and musical excerpts.  Particularly fine performances were ‘Memory’ from Cats and ‘Nessun Dorma’ from Turandot.  The evening concluded with the entire audience joining in the chorus of ‘Volare’.  Performances continuing in the car park afterwards as people departed saying “What a wonderful evening”.

Our thanks to Diane & Charles Gaskain, Debbie Cook and her team for the excellent food, Barman Paul Smith, Sylviane Martell and everyone involved. Also, of course, to Cameo Opera for a feast of music and merriment.

Jenny & Graham Pay

Saturday 6 February 2010 

Lower Hardres Village Hall, Canterbury  7.30 pm

The Poet of the Year 2009, Dorothy Fryd, has been chosen, for her beautiful poem On paper, this is an affair.

Read the full story by Judge Nick Hunt.

Also, congratulations to the following:

2009 Poet of the Year Short List

Anthologies are on sale from the Festival Office (£3)

Request a copy of the Poet of the Year 2009 anthology.

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