Poetry / Lyra Bristol Poetry Festival
Lyra – Bristol Poetry Festival announces biggest programme ever
Bristol’s city-wide celebration of contemporary poetry has announced its biggest programme ever for 2026.
Co-directed by Dr Lucy English and Danny Pandolfi, Lyra – Bristol Poetry Festival is the south west’s largest dedicated poetry festival, featuring 10 days of events at leading arts venues across the city – including St George’s, Arnolfini, Watershed, Bristol Old Vic and Loco Klub.
Following 2025’s ‘weird and wild’, this year’s chosen theme is ‘wonder & wanderers’: marking “histories of migration and movement in Bristol and across the UK” through a plethora of reading, performances, workshops, poetry slams, family events, walking tours, open mics and panel discussions.
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Travis Alabanza will be hosting a Queer Poetry Cabaret at Arnolfini on April 17 – photo: Eiv Hansen
“The programme reflects on landscape, mythology and belonging, and considers how poetry holds stories of travel, change and home”, the organisers say.
Featured acts include Jamaican-born American poet Shara McCallum, who will be headlining the Caribbean Poetry Liming, author and broadcaster Musa Okwonga, who will headline and judge the 2026 Lyra Poetry Slam, and Bristol-born writer and performer Travis Alabanza, who will lead a Queer Poetry Cabaret.
They join previously announced headliners Shane Koyczan, the Canadian spoken word artist, and former Children’s Laureate Michael Rosen, who will be presenting a family performance for ages 6+.
Lyra Poetry Slam Finals 2025 – photo: Sam Cavender
There will also be theatre performances by Joelle Taylor and Inua Ellams, as well as readings from newly published works by poets including Nikita Gill, Rishi Dastidar, Karen McCarthy-Woolf, Wayne Holloway-Smith, Matthew Rice and Clare Pollard.
As an event – and as a year-round organisation – Lyra is committed to supporting emerging, as well as established writers. Demonstrating their passion for widening access to poetry as an artform, the annual festival provides multiple opportunities for budding poets to participate – whether through open mic events, writing workshops where no experience is necessary, discussion panels, or the coveted poetry slam event, which is open to entrants from across the south west.
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Lyra – Bristol Poetry Festival is back on April 17-26 at multiple venues across Bristol.
The full programme is now available at www.lyrafest.com, where tickets can be purchased for individual events, as well as festival passes. Selected events will be BSL interpreted, captioned and live streamed. All festival venues are wheelchair accessible.
Follow @lyrafest for festival updates. You can become a supporter of Lyra’s year-round work here.
Main photo: Sam Cavender (Lyra Poetry Slam Winner 2025 – Ben Vince)
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