Always on
This project successfully funded on 20th April 2026, you can still support them with a donation.
The MixTape Poetry Festival 2026
United Kingdom
Aim
A five-day festival bringing together the burgeoning open mic and spoken word community in an embrace of music, food, panels and poetry!
Why Do It?
Attending the many vibrant but different open mic and spoken word poetry events throughout London and surrounding areas opened up a new world of friends, talent, community and ideas open to and for all. The idea for a festival was to have a single event where this community could thrive, meet friends and peers they may not otherwise encounter, and to invite the wider community to enjoy the events.
What About 2026?
In 2025, we were overwhelmed by the support and collaborations in what turned out to be a memorable week of music, poetry, panels, community of all backgrounds and walks of life, creativity, and artists from 8-12 October 2025. We were hugely grateful for a last minute contribution which covered one third of one venue's hire fee but apart from that, the 2025 festival was completely and eye-wateringly self-funded. Funds raised from ticket and merch sales barely covered another third of the main festival venue hire fee. This meant that happy as we are to have worked extra day job hours to continue to pay back the many invoices and festival related costs, unless we can secure funding for 2026, the festival cannot be repeated.
What Can I Do?
All contributions are welcome - not contribution is too small! Your support will go towards the costs of the 2026 festival, which include venue hire costs, paying our artists and guests, arranging workshops for attendees, printing costs for programmes/merchandising, ticketing materials costs (wristbands etc), and related festival costs.
Why MixTape?
The "mixtape" element arose from the will to bring together a few of all our favourites in the poetry and spoken word/open mic communities, which themselves provide a massive support to people from all walks of life who also use poetry as a way of communicating, supporting and for cathartic reasons. Poetry has fast become the language of community and spirit, be it comedic, confessional, or just jump up "yes!" empathetic.
What Happened?
The five day festival of poetry, events, music, panels, stalls, showcasing independent publishers and other sellers/creatives, also opens up this burgeoning and warm community to the wider community of all ages and walks of life, attracting families, individuals and first-timers to poetry and events.
THANK YOU for your support - we look forward to welcoming you at the festival if you can help us make it happen!
Funding method
Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made