The UK’s longest-running poetry festival turns thirty. From 2 –11 July 2027, we celebrate thirty years of poets with a core programme of live readings, conversations, workshops, film and music – alongside our imaginative year-round education programme and a series of community-led poetry events in and around Herefordshire.

*Established in 1996, Ledbury Poetry held its first festival in 1997. Our thirtieth-anniversary programme honours how poetry has evolved since our conception, its place in our present, and the role it will play in our future.



Ledbury Poetry Competition 2026

The Ledbury Poetry Competition is being judged by Andrew McMillan. The competition is international and open to poets aged 18 and over writing in the English language.