Melbourne / Narrm, Australia • 24 October 2026
Sonic Poetry Festival 2026 is your invitation to play!
Our aim is to connect poetry and spoken word practitioners of all varieties: audience members, gig organisers, convenors and facilitators in a celebration of poetry and the spoken word. We would like to create entrances for people interested in experiencing poetry, those who need poetry in their lives and don’t know it, artists, gigs and the poets out there quietly writing and performing. We also wish to serve and uplift underrepresented micro-communities.
This year, the festival proposes the creation of three distinct centres:
1. A textual and sonic play-ground that allows us to be generative, thoughtful and even capricious together in a safe space
2. A civic laboratory where participants consider our roles as artist or audience or something both and in between — in the room and beyond
3. A warm gathering space where we can share poetry, spoken word, presence and our individual and collective humanness.
The festival will be held on Saturday, 24th October at Balam Balam Place (a fantastic new purpose-built creative and community precinct in Brunswick).
Sonic Poetry Festival is a community-based grassroots poetry and spoken word festival based in Melbourne / Narrm.
Our aim is to connect poetry and spoken word practitioners of all varieties, audience members, gig organisers, convenors and facilitators in a celebration of poetry and the spoken word. We would like to create entrances for gigs, artists and the poets out there quietly writing and reciting. We seek to create pathways for people who need poetry in their lives and don’t know it, and provide space for people to share their stories. We also wish to serve micro-communities that deserve to exist.
I’m New Here! What’s in it for me?
The Melbourne/Narrm (including regional Victoria) poetry community is a welcoming, warm, and inspiring space to share and experiment with new work and to grow as a poet. Poets of all backgrounds, styles and experience levels are not only welcome, but wanted in this space. Come through, listen, learn, grow, and (if it’s an open mic) share. Welcome to the community!