50 Years
of Poetry

In 1975, poet Richard Berengarten founded the Cambridge Poetry Festival. Before long, it had become the largest poetry event in the country, a place where some of the most important writers of the time came together, including Ted Hughes, Seamus Heaney and Allen Ginsberg. Now, fifty years on, with the next festival on the horizon in 2026, we’re holding a special evening of poetry, music and dance to celebrate what the festivals which have been and those still to come.

The night will bring together poets from across the festival’s history. Richard Berengarten, Mick Gowar, Angela Leighton and Anthony Rudolph, all key figures in the first run of festivals, will return to read. Alongside them, poets and writers from the current Cambridge poetry scene, including students from the University of Cambridge and Anglia Ruskin University, will share poems of their own as well as work by writers who read at the festivals in years past.

There’ll also be performances from local youth dance company Colours of Dance and cellist Talitha Annan, weaving music and movement into the evening’s celebration of poetry.

Whether you remember the early festivals or 2026 will be your first, come and join us. It’s set to be a joyful, moving evening and a chance to mark fifty years of poetry in Cambridge, with many more still to come.