Poets are set to take centre stage in Ripon this Thursday as the city marks National Poetry Day with a series of live pop-up performances at three prime local landmarks.
The day of rhyme and spoken word kicks off on Thursday 1 October 2026, bringing together a stellar line-up of award-winning regional writers, including the reigning winner of the National Poetry Society’s competition and a local poet whose debut collection was highly recommended by New Writing North. They will be joined by three former Ripon Poetry Festival winners and the titleholder of the Wetherby Poetry Festival Comedy Performance.
The celebratory trail begins between 11:00 AM and 12:00 PM at the historic Workhouse Museum on Allhallowgate, showcasing verse and interactive literary activities. The focus then shifts to the inspiring surroundings of Ripon Cathedral for a series of afternoon readings from 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM, before rounding off with an energetic open-mic evening open to all at the Claro Lounge on Market Place South starting at 7:30 PM.
Flourishing the spoken and written word
The pop-up events have been coordinated by the Ripon Poets network to ensure the city’s rich history of verse continues to thrive publicly this autumn.
Katie Scott, Director of Ripon Theatre Festival said: The poetry festival brought the city eight entertaining and creative years of poetry with visiting poets, open-mic nights, competitions, anthologies, schools residencies and more. Although there is no formal poetry festival this year, Thursday’s National Poetry Day will still be marked and celebrated, thanks to Ripon Poets.
The initiative has drawn strong backing from the Ripon Theatre Festival team, who have integrated spoken word into their core programming since inception and are actively looking to expand the district’s literary event scene in partnership with Ripon BID.
Katie Scott added: Members of our team will be attending the National Poetry Day events and meeting other poetry lovers, bookworms and word junkies. All interested parties are welcome to come along to the performances and share their ideas for future events and activities that celebrate the spoken and written word.
All daytime performances and the evening open-mic session at the Claro Lounge are free to attend, with no prior booking required. For further details on the local performance schedule, residents can contact the festival media desk directly.