WHEN John Burnside won the T.S Eliot Prize this year, he described poetry as ‘the music of what happens’, and a Gloucestershire festival is set to have audiences dancing in the aisles this year with a line-up which combines poetry with folk, hip-hop, blue s and even opera.

Festival Director Anna Saunders says ‘since the festival’s launch in 2010 we have aimed to offer an all-singing, all-dancing festival – one that fuses poetry and music, film, drama and visual art and this year we have extended our program to offer a stage to up-and coming musicians, such as Cheltenham based performers Edd Donavon and Clayton Blizzard, Carol Ann Duffy’s favourite poetry band Little Machine and even a song cycle of poems by Emily Dickinson which will be performed by The English Touring Opera.’ Highlights of the festival include film showings, a performance by People’s Poet Laureate John Hegley, a play about Dylan Thomas’s fated American tour, In Tune With Dementia ;a true-life dramatization in which a son struggles to reconnect with his disabled mother suffering from dementia, readings by internationally acclaimed poets Don Paterson and Ruth Padel, a showcase by student s from The University of Gloucestershire, storytelling, a carbaret night featuring comedy, poetry and music, events dedicated to Gloucestershire’s Dymock poets and Laurie Lee, workshops, a performance of Spark, The Goblin Wizard – a theatre show performed and written by slam-star Dominic Berry, readings of a cult Gloucestershire inspired novel It Never Gets Dark All Night and much more.

The full programme will be available on line from Friday, February 14. More information is available at www.cheltenhampoetryfest.co.uk Cheltenham Poetry Festival runs from March 28 – April 9 in various venues.