Kendal Poetry Festival, 7th-9th September 2018

It’s been a while, but the team behind Kendal Poetry Festival (ie Pauline and I) have quietly yet frantically been working away behind the scenes.  We’ve spent the last few months putting together grant applications to fund the 2018 Kendal Poetry Festival, and it is with great relief and excitement that we can say we have been successful and have secured full funding from the Arts Council and the Sir John Fisher Foundation for the third consecutive year.

At the top of this post you will see some photos – these  are of our new venue, the Castle Green Hotel in Kendal.  After two successful and sold-out years at the Abbot Hall Art Gallery, we had to take the difficult decision to move the festival elsewhere, because our wonderful audiences kept expanding and there was no room for you all!

We are really delighted with our new venue though – the Castle Green Hotel is a 4 star hotel on the outskirts of Kendal (just about within walking distance if you like hills!) and 15 minutes away from the motorway.  There is a pub, bar and restaurant on-site, as well as a gym and swimming pool.  Most of the 2018 festival will take place at the hotel, with a few events taking place in town centre venues such as Kendal Library, the Waterside Cafe and Waterstones.  The hotel is fully accessible with hearing loop, and the larger rooms will allow us to accommodate our growing audience.

This year, we will have Festival Passes available – these are limited in number so keep an eye out here for when tickets and festival passes become available.  A Festival Pass will allow entry into our open mic session, our seven Main Readings and three Discussion sessions.  Extra things happening this year include two readings aimed at nursery and primary school children and a session which will involve having Afternoon Tea whilst listening to poetry!

The hotel have offered a 10% discount on their usual room rates for any festival goers – to take advantage of this special offer, please ring the hotel and quote ‘Kendal Poetry Festival’ to the reception team on 01539 734000.  This offer is detailed below

Friday – £126.00 single – £153.00 double occupancy
Saturday – £153.00 single- £180.00 double occupancy
Sunday – £126.00 single – £153.00 double occupancy

There are also other accommodation options available in Kendal – for a list of bed and breakfast options and hotels, you could have a look at http://www.bedandbreakfasts.co.uk/cumbria/kendal/