A 5 day festival of Experimental Queer poetry in a Victorian Crypt in London. A world premiere by Neil Bartlett. Lets Make It Weird.
MAKE POETRY WEIRD AGAIN is a poetry organisation that is 1 year old, in that time it has self funded, 100 podcast episodes of interviews and performances with neuro queer poets internationally, hosted and programmed monthly poetry workshops, salons, gigs and a 7 day poetry festival in a crypt. That all cost a lot of money as the last festival was entirely free. This summer we will print over 10 pamphlets from our resident poets. All self funded.
We believe poetry needs spaces to find its voice, the holdspace poetry festival is the only neurodivergent queer GENERATIVE poetry festival in a crypt we know of. For days poets freeze in a crypt to write. It works, they make loads of poems and perform every night. Everyone leaves transformed. An art show is built in the space. Poem by poem.
WHAT ARE YOU FUNDING?
The Crypt Gallery and Make Poetry Weird Again Presents Hold Space Poetry festival which is a queer poetry festival, as part of Bloomsbury Festival's 20th year. Sixteen poets. 5 nights of open mic. Workshops daily. Live Podcast Recordings. A world premiere commissioned from Neil Bartlett OBE. Work that is sacred without being solemn and queer without asking permission made to be heard out loud in a room that was never built for joy, and will be full of it.
We already know this works. In Holy Week 2026 we ran a festival in the same crypt: seven nights of open mic, sixteen resident poets, every night sold out, and a zine printed overnight while the candles were still warm. People came down into the dark and did not want to leave. October is that, made bigger and paid for properly.
We require Access Support workers, transport and specially trained mental aid first aiders, we want to present more music by musicians with specific access needs and create a neuro queer thirdspace for all.
Tea and biscuits for 300 people minimum!
WHY AM I FUNDING A QUEER POETRY FESTIVAL?
The Arts Council rejected our funding application, which we were expecting as what we do is pretty niche. However we created a genuine third space for poetry in April. Hundreds of poems were made and performed and hundreds came to witness it. We welcomed the unhoused of Euston and gave every one who needed one a seat and a cup of tea and a biscuit (and the wifi code).
The space is sober, so we make nothing from bars. We are poets and not business people! The space is a listening space and so we promote a calm way of getting out of the noise of the city and finding stillness, or being moved to tears by somebody's words.
That last part is why we're here. We're raising £5000 to pay every poet a real fee, run the crypt safely, print the festival zine, pay for access transport for poets with access needs, document the event and keep tickets free where we can and low enough that the people this work is for can get through the door. No one performs for exposure. No one is turned away for money.
If a poem has ever held you or if you've ever wanted a room where the strange, the sacred and the queer could stand together and be taken seriously this is you funding that room. Give what you can. Share it further than you'd think to. Come in October and see what your money built.
Something green, growing up through the stone.
Funding method
Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made by 31st August 2026 at 7:15am