Strokestown International Poetry Festival

The Strokestown International Poetry Festival and aims to provide a forum for excellence in poetry, of different types, in both English and Irish, and to create new audiences for poetry.The weekend consists of readings from poets across the spectrum, well-known and new voices - approximately twenty readings over three days. For these it commands large audiences - even at 10.30am!  All the poetry readings are free. In this the poetry is made as accessible as possible, particularly to local people and schools. No events run concurrently, so everyone can go to everything – which makes for an unusually intense poetic experience. It also makes the festival exceptionally sociable – every year new friendships are forged over the course of the weekend. The festival offers a small town welcome and convivial informality with some of the most gracious settings for poetry readings in Ireland. The satirical verse, and schools' poetry competitions take place in the Percy French Hotel, while other poetry readings take place in the extraordinarily romantic surroundings of Strokestown Park House and its gardens.