6 June 2025

POETRY SLAM

Feel the adrenaline, move us, amuse us!

6 June 2025

POETRY SLAM

Feel the adrenaline, move us, amuse us!

The Poetry Slam is a Bellingen Readers & Writers Festival institution. It’s not only the first public event of the Festival, but the fastest to sell out!

Twenty poets have two minutes each to win your hearts and minds. You’ll laugh, cry, gasp, sigh. Judges selected from the audience will send ten lucky poets through to the second round to do it all again, and perhaps walk home with a major prize!

In 2025, the Poetry Slam’s sponsor is Bellingen Wellness. Their generous sponsorship is helping us to make the 2025 Bellingen Poetry Slam as fabulous as it always is, and we’re hugely grateful. Thanks to them, we have first and second prizes, and the coveted People’s Choice award.

If you want to be in the audience, tickets go on sale through the Festival website at 7 pm on Monday 17 March. They’re likely to sell out within 24 hours, so don’t delay!

If you’re feeling brave enough to perform, or you want to perform anyway, then good on you!   Read the performer rules, and, if still keen, apply for a free performer ticket at the bottom of this page. If you want friends and family to come and watch, make sure they get audience tickets.

Maybe this year, the winner could be you?

Potential Performers …

This page is the ‘source of all truth’. If we have to make last-minute changes, we’ll notify performers by email, but also check here closer to the event.

On the Night

On the Night

SIGN IN

On the evening of the event, all participants must sign in between 5 pm and 6.30 pm.* If you’re not signed in by 6.30, your slot may be given to someone else, and you will be waitlisted. Performers will be seated on stage, so we can squeeze a few more people in. Be on stage by 7 pm to start at 7.15 sharp.

*If you need to cut it closer for some reason, let me know beforehand.

MIC TRAINING

The Poetry Slam is a competition, but also a community. Arrive at 6 pm to meet each other, do a bit of vocal warming up and practise using the microphone. It’s a very good idea to try out the mic before you’re standing on stage for 120 seconds.

INTERVAL DINNER

If you aren’t too nervous to eat, we plan to organise food for you all backstage, so you don’t have to rush out to get dinner in the break.

Performance Rules

Performance Rules

TIME: TWO-MINUTE POEM

Your time starts at your very first word or gesture. If you want to introduce yourself or do some banter, that’s fine, but it counts as part of your two minutes. We will ring a bell when you have 10 seconds left, but it may not work and you may not notice it in the heat of the moment. When you practise your poems, aim to make them about 1 minute 45 seconds so you have some time up your sleeve.

JUDGING

We usually have five judges selected from the audience, and we add the middle three scores together to give your tally. You lose a point from your tally at 2’ 01”, and another at 2’ 30”, when we cut you off.

YOUR PEFORMANCE

It’s just you and your voice and body language – no costumes, props or instruments. (You may wear glasses and a hat to block the lights if you need to.) Make sure they aren’t also props though!

ORIGINAL WORK

The poem must be your original work. You can’t use a poem that you have performed at a previous Bellingen Poetry Slam.

ROUNDS

Currently, we’re planning to have two rounds: twenty performers in the first, ten in the second.

READING IS OK

You *do not* automatically lose points for reading your poem, but make sure you know it really well so you can look up a lot. Ideally, you are performing, not just reading.

TIE-BREAKERS: EXTRA POEMS

In case we need a tie-breaker, it’s a good idea to have three poems ready on the night, and maybe a fourth written down somewhere, though we’ve never needed two tie-breakers. On the night, we’ll let you know how we’re going to handle a tie if we get one.

FINALLY

At the Slam, there’s a mix of first-timers and regulars, readers and memorisers, genders and cultures. We will probably have a get-together rehearsal for anyone who wants it about a month ahead. This is especially useful if you’re new to performing.

If all this sounds good, and you are excited enough to overcome any terror at the thought of performing in front of 350-odd people, click the link to apply to join us