I’m over the moon to be the 2023 Glastonbury Festival Poet in Residence! Tomorrow morning we drive down to Somerset (!!), so I wanted to share a bit more about the role before the adventure begins!

Glastonbury is one of the world’s biggest and most iconic festivals, featuring music, theatre, poetry, conversation, arts installations, and so much more. To have the honour of representing and documenting it is a dream come true! In this role I’m following in the footsteps of some of my favourite UK poets, including Jo Bell, Kate Fox, Tony Walsh, and last year’s Poet in Residence Desree.

The main role of the Poet in Residence is writing poems before, during, and after the festival documenting the experience. I’ve written two so far, which you can watch below or read here:

I’ll be writing poems throughout the festival which will be posted as I finish them on this webpage so you can read along!

I’ll also be performing a set on Sunday afternoon at the fabulous Poetry&Words tent! P&W will be my home base for the festival, and I’m so excited about the lineup this year; it’s a who’s-who of major names and fantastic emerging talent from across the UK scene. Of course, I’m particularly proud of the strong Scottish contingent featured this year, including my Loud Poets dudes Kevin Mclean and Mark Gallie plus Sarah Grant & David Devereux, Iona Lee, and Leyla Josephine. You can check out the full lineup and read more about each performer on the Poetry&Words blog (written this year by Kevin Mclean).

Finally, I’ll be doing a few media appearances throughout the festival sharing my poetry and experiences! On Sunday morning just after 11 I’ll be live on BBC Radio 6 speaking with Cerys Matthews and sharing one of my new festival poems. The programme will be available after live broadcast here. I’ll share links to other interviews and performances as they come out! And to learn more about my plans for the residence, you can check out this interview I gave to the good folks at The Understudy.

Right, I’d better go finish packing now… thanks for reading, and if you’ll be at Glasto this year, see you in the field! -Katie