Now in its 11th year, Wordpool’s 2017 Festival of Poetry will premiere its latest piece ‘Illuminate’, which is a short film made of Wordpool’s recent Poetry Competition’s winning entry, during LightPool on 26th October.



The winning poem, which will be announced on the 26th, will be projected onto the world famous Blackpool Tower building as part of this year’s LightPool celebrations.

The winning poem was chosen by Wordpool’s Poetry Judge, Alice Kate Mullen of the Poetry Book Society and this prestigious prize will be awarded to this year’s winner at 7pm on Thursday, 26th October on the Tower Festival Headland.

Digital artists Soup Collective, based in Manchester, have made the film with contributions from a group of 20 BA(Hons) Animation students from Manchester School of Art, MMU. The Wordpool volunteers have also taken part in the filming and are eagerly awaiting the final cut to see how their roles come together in the film.

Councillor Gillian Campbell, Deputy Leader of Blackpool Council said, “We are delighted to be able to announce and finally reveal the winner of this year’s Wordpool Festival of Poetry.

“What better way to experience poetry in Blackpool than as part of the world-famous Blackpool Illuminations. The short film will be seen by the many visitors to LightPool adding to the amazing selection of projections beamed onto the Tower each evening.”

Also taking place on the night from 5pm will be performances for this year’s Festival@LightPool including The Carnival of the Lights incorporating the world’s first illuminated tramcar parade, a procession of illuminated vehicles and assortment of illuminated characters plus Spark! Worldbeater drummers. The parade will finish with an electric performance by AFISHAL, all taking place on the Tower Festival Headland.

Following these performances, there will be a ‘Parade of Poets’ introducing the poetry winner and the first opportunity to see the short film. The film will continue to be shown nightly as part of the Tower projections which run until Sunday 5th November.

For more information on Wordpool and the Festival of Poetry, please go to www.wordpoolfestival.co.uk

Picture Caption: Selection of just some of the local people who appear in the film reciting lines from the winning poem. The film includes abstract imagery and animations created by students from the BA(Hons) Animation at MMU.