Poetry in the panoramic! There are eight sides to the timber built Observatory Hill Rotunda, and we will repurpose it with poetry from all sides of the Harbour this Saturday afternoon come rain or shine.
The annual event acknowledges the efforts undertaken throughout the year by the conveners of poetry in forging poetry communities and developing support of the art form in Sydney and New South Wales. Representatives are invited to attend, speak of their event and read. There is also an open section. Registrations are strictly on the day only.
Now in its ninth year, the reading will feature three-time winner of the Nimbin World Cup of Poetry, Tug Dumbly, (Geoff Forrester), as Emcee.
From the more established poetry events through to the emerging, performative and the competitive that feature, local, regional, national and international poets and collaborators across a range of different venues, from libraries, galleries, museums to pubs and clubs we will celebrate their public programs in 2025.
The event is free and all are welcome. BYO: poem, picnic and chair!
The Sydney Poetry Picnic returns to the Observatory Hill Rotunda, to higher ground, cover from the moody weather, above the underfoot wet conditions and in amplification of poets from all directions.
3-6pm Saturday 25 January 2025
Observatory Hill Rotunda
Observatory Hill Park, 2 Watson Rd, Millers Point NSW 2000
W E A T H E R W A T C H >>>
Saturday’s weather forecast is to be cloudy with slight chance of a shower. Maximum temprature 27.
About the emcee
Tug Dumbly is the pen and stage name of Geoff Forrester, a Nowra-born poet and performer who has lived in Sydney for decades. He has worked extensively in radio, venues and schools, and founded a couple of seminal poetry nights in Sydney. He has performed his work as resident-poet on ABC radio (Triple J, ABC 702), and released two spoken-word CDs through the ABC – Junk Culture Lullabies and Idiom Savant. His awards include the Banjo Paterson Prize for Comic Verse (twice), and Nimbin Performance Poetry World Cup (thrice). His poems have appeared in many publications and he has been shortlisted numerous times for major awards. In 2020 he won the Borranga Poetry Prize, in 2022 he won the Woorilla Poetry Prize, and most recently he won the 2023 Bruce Dawe Poetry prize. His first poetry collection, Son Songs, came out in 2018 and his second collection was published last year, Tadpoems , through Flying Islands Books. He is also a singer, songwriter and musician who likes photography and nature, especially cicadas.