StAnza 2013 - Blitz spirit in St Andrews

Founded in 1998, Scotland's only dedicated poetry festival has been based in the Byre Theatre since 2002. So when the Byre announced that they were closing due to budget cuts only days after the StAnza programme was finalised things did not look good. But the enthusiasm of the StAnza team was infectious and before long everyone was pitching in with venues and offers of help, most touchingly many of the now ex-Byre staff. StAnza 2013 would live on!

I had never been to StAnza before, although many had told me tales of how exciting it was and what a wonderful atmosphere settled over St Andrews for the duration. The festival relies heavily on volunteers, as many festivals do. In this case it's rather lovely as it shows how many people, mostly students, are enthusiastic about poetry; my only concern is that they also rely on volunteer photographers, which does mean that the coverage is variable. Having agreed to go up for some of the festival, I set myself the task of capturing the atmosphere, showing what it's like to hang out there rather then just documenting the events, which were mostly covered already.

St Andrews is a strange place; considering it houses a 600yr old world class university and is one of the linchpins of the golfing world it's a small town that doesn't even have its own train station.  Being small, it's hard to get lost, which is a relief since post-Byre StAnza is a little more spread out than is traditional. Wandering the streets it's strangely jarring to see so many students in what is otherwise a small Scottish town.

I arrived on day one, Wednesday, before everything had kicked off. The new 'hub' was the Town Hall, with ticket sales, book sales and general festival administration sharing a room with various artworks, cafe, bar and social space. Oddly, except at times when events were coming out and people were alternatively queuing to buy books and then get them signed, this all seemed quite natural and gave the space a pleasant hubbub. In the hub. Get it?

For the launch we decamped to a very fancy new university building about 10 minutes walk away (in St Andrews most things are about 10 minutes walk away). The cafeteria there was far from being a traditional venue for a festival launch but since the first real event, Riverrun, required more technological goodies than the Town Hall could field the lecture theatre at the Medical & Biological Sciences Building was doing the job. While we awaited the launch I took Alvin Pang and Erín Moure aside to shoot them for my own nefarious purposes...

Welcomed by the Festival Director, Eleanor Livingstone, those assembled were also entertained by Gillian Clarke, Alvin Pang, Erín Moure, and music from the University of St Andrews Buchanan Scholarship Quartet before finishing off with some rousing words from guest Lesley Riddoch and moving into the main event.

Nobody I spoke to was quite sure what to expect from Riverrun; all we knew for sure was that it was Irish poetry with some sort of multimedia. What we were offered was a series of poets performing in English and Irish Gaelic with images and words projected behind them while a clarinet provided atmospheric musics. Sadly, from my perspective, this was lit mostly in blue - not making for an easy shooting experience. At least the show was enjoyable.

After this most people went off to find their accommodation but a few of us went to check out Poetry Café: Inklight Showcase at Aikman's bar. This turned out to be mostly an open mic night run by the Inklight Creative Writing Society which isn't really my thing, so I went off to find my hotel.

Not quite bright and early the next morning thanks to a late night of editing and a comfy bed, I went to hang out at the hub and see what was happening.

One of the more unusual pieces of art on display was a set of dresses that used conductive lace to turn them into interactive poetry-reciting outfits. On display in a corner of the building that provided an amusing contrast, I took to hanging out with the dresses - and their keepers - when it got a bit hectic in the main space. The dresses were being taken on tour around St Andrews' fashion outlets at the weekend, which sadly didn't coincide with my trips to the festival, but I gather went down well.

Thinking I should probably attend an event I headed back to Aikman's for Poetry Café: Ghostboy, with Rob Barratt. An interesting pairing, Barratt is a comedic poet but is nothing shocking; Ghostboy, however, is a strange fabulous performance poet from Australia whose energy and audience interaction was clearly a bit much for some of the audience. It was at this point in the proceedings that I realised the audience were quite clearly split into two groups, one for each poet. Intriguing.

After the event I spoke to Ghostboy and his partner Katherine Battersby, who is a writer in her own right, and we ended up going for a walk with my camera around St Andrews. I was devastated to find that they had just been in Edinburgh as part of their whirlwind trip around Europe and had missed them there.

And then I had to get back to Edinburgh for other commitments, returning on Saturday...

Arriving after 3pm I had already missed a few events and guests I would like to have caught so rather than tarry any longer I dashed off to the Poets' Market to see what was happening there. It was a church hall filled up with stalls awash with pamphlets and pieces of word-based art, surrounded by the stallholders and many many punters. I didn't have long so made short work of the place before being summonsed back to the hub to catch the dresses after their fashion tour.

Two models had been brought in to showcase the dresses and the third dress was on the mannequin; we played around and took a few photos of them for posterity.

There are so many interesting people to talk to at StAnza that time flew by and suddenly it was time for Poetry Centre Stage, with John Hegley and Jacob Sam-La Rose. The auditorium was packed and both performers put on sets as excellent as one might expect, preceded by a rousing speech from one of the board.

With hardly time to breathe it was into the StAnza Slam with MC Luke Wright. A bit more shambolic than the average slam - yes, I know - it felt a bit like a Literary Death Match at times.

Saturday night was spent in a straaange hostel populated largely by Germans attending an Oktoberfest. Which meant another late night, but with all the comings and goings there would be no sleeping in!

Having scoured the place for a good strong coffee I found Lukes Wright and Kennard pacing the main street, trying to find their venue. So I joined them in their quest. Eventually it appeared, as if from a secret close...

Border Crossings with Samantha Wynne-Rhydderch and Luke Kennard was in the Undercroft, which felt like a better lit version of any underground vault in Edinburgh. Contrasting poetry and performance styles but both excellent.

Back at the hub I though I should check out some of the art on display before I had to rush off.

And of course a quick stop into the Poetry Café with Luke Wright was unavoidable.

Last year there had apparently been some very popular poetry biscuits so this year Sally Crabtree, the Poetry Postie, was distributing cakes with word-encrusted scrolls of rice paper tied atop them.

One of the ongoing pieces of work in the hub was some 'visual minuting' by Ariadne Radi Cor, documenting the Poetry Breakfasts in a visual style. I had seen these boards going up but only caught one in progress on the last day.

Then, having been impressed by his event, I convinced Luke Kennard to come pose in an alley for me, away from the snow!

So how was StAnza for me? I would like to have been able to stay for the whole thing, see a few more events and spend more time meeting the poets socially. From what I experienced, the staff, performers and punters were all lovely and also very keen; this certainly helped to make everything feel warm and friendly even when the venues weren't quite fit for purpose.

I do hope that by next year the Byre is back in action; everything came together but the lack of a real spiritual centre was often palpable. I'd also like to see the festival get some more funding, even if only to help document things more consistently; I've not yet seen the official coverage from 2013 but based on last year's gallery the output is rather varied and I worry that many of the performers, coming from larger cities and festivals, may be accustomed to more. And with the ever-increasing desire for immediate online discussion there is some space for expansion in that direction as well.

But generally, if you're a poetry aficionado there's an excellent time to be had, surrounded by similarly eager soon-to-be friends.

Disclaimer: StAnza have no photography budget and thus although they covered my travel and accommodation I wasn't exactly an Official Photographer, nor was I a complete outsider. However, as someone who has attended many literary events and been involved in numerous festivals of various flavours I feel that I am in an excellent position to report on my first StAnza experience from a reasonably impartial perspective.

February 2013 - Still quiet...

You know, I complained that January was quiet but that was nothing on February...

The Edinburgh International Science Festival launched their pattern-themed 2013 programme, and that evening they had a pattern-themed LateLab at Inspace.

The ECA Animation students had an evening showcasing a series of shorts, each made in 24 hours, in association with the New Bulgarian University in Sofia. 10x10x13 also featured some live improvised music accompanying various animations.

Stitch Lounge time! After the menswear edition I stepped away from the sewing machines and back into a purely observational role. I even broke out the flash (gasp!) occasionally.

The Traverse 50 had another group session, with two senior radio people from the BBC discussing how to get a play successfully commissioned.

And Electric Tales, starring the varied talents of Andrew Learmonth, Rebecca Green, Wild Card Kitty, Donald Nelson and Derek Johnston.

The Scottish Storytelling Centre's Cafe Voices night was perilously close to February 14 and so the theme was Vile Valentines, hosted by the magnificent Ariadne Cass-Maran to much applause.

As part of LGBT History Month a group of writers were commissioned to create pieces on the theme of kin. These were performed at Summerhall on two days, the event I attended had Roy Gill (who is very very good all round), Mary Paulson-Ellis, Allan Radcliffe and Islay Bell-Webb wowing the audience.

Back to Rally & Broad for The Grudge and the Glow, a fun-filled evening at the Counting House with Austen George, Lucy Ayrton, Rhys Kirkman, Graeme Hawley, Leo Glaister, "Dizzy Godiva & Wicked McElders feat. Sian Bevan!" and the quite remarkable poet Bohdan Piasecki.

The second trilogy of poetry pamphlets from Stewed Rhubarb Press were launched at the Jazz Bar, Harry Giles's Visa Wedding, Tracey S Rosenberg's Lipstick is Always a Plus and Lucy Ayrton's Lullabies to Make Your Children Cry.

Birlinn, a publishing house who are literally around the corner, needed some shots of Rosemary Goring as she has her first novel coming out soon. Since it's about the Battle of Flodden I took her to the Flodden wall for a play...

Do people really judge a book by its cover? was an unusual event at Blackwell in Edinburgh. Focusing on Charlie Fletcher's latest novel, Far Rockaway, there was a discussion on how book covers are chosen and in particular the process to come up with this one, which was the product of a competition with the Edinburgh College of Art.

Cachín Cachán Cachunga was having its fourth anniversary show at Mono Cafe Bar in Glasgow this year - which started a long period of me going to places outside Edinburgh for various reasons. An extremely varied evening of words, music, dance, this was exactly what it says on the tin, "Queer & Trans Cabaret".

And then March, when the whole world is coming to life...

2013: A slow start...

And so 2013 started with a bang, as is traditional in Edinburgh. I wasn't doing anything much so observed the fireworks from Arthur's Seat.

On New Year's Day this year the ennui was dispelled by a dice-loaded set of New Year's Games, a selection of events at 13 different venues around town. I wandered around a few of them.

The next event in the calendar was Electric Tales: New Year Love-in, the first ET since last summer due to the host, Siân Bevan being out of the country. This featured the talents of Bob Graham, Quentin Reynolds, Rachel McCrum, Poppy La Pilule and Jojo Sutherland.

I've been a fan of Ben Aaronovitch since he wrote some of the most noteworthy Dr Who novels in the 1989-2005 interregnum (hush, I'm allowed to be a nerd). His recent novels have been excellent so I was delighted to see he was going to be in Edinburgh.

Billy Liar was about to go on tour with his new EP and needed some images for the cover, so we spent an evening in the Forest trying to get the right look.

As part of their 50th birthday celebrations the Traverse Theatre ran a competition to select 50 playwrights to work with over 2013, the Traverse 50. In tandem with this the Edinburgh-based stock library Writer Pictures ran a similar competition to find 50 photographers to work with these writers. I had originally applied to this but after discussions with WP we decided it would be more interesting if I was to cover what was going on over the year. And so I went along to meet them (not all 50, as some live very far away) at their first workshop...

Last year Illicit Ink ran a happy poetry event called Happy Verse Day, which was generally deemed a success. And so there was a sequel, Happy Verse Day II, featuring Katherine Tarka, James Spence, Sean Martin, Tom Moore, Sophia Walker, Elspeth Murray, Eliza Langland, Morag Edwards, Emily Dodd and Alec Beattie.

Back to Rally & Broad for The Hangover Special, continuing the trend of getting busier every month. This time featuring Seafieldroad, J L Williams, Rebecca Green, Alan Bissett, Ryan Van Winkle and Kite and the Crane.

First time back at Inspace for what seemed like forever! Future Shorts brought the usual selection of quirky short films, this time preceded by the Edinburgh Film Music Orchestra accompanying some Charlie Chaplin.

And again at Inspace for This Happened... with talks by Gianluca Zaffiro, Varun Nair, Oleg Suran and Shenando Stals.

My friend Nic felt the need to get some nice portraits in his fancy new suit, so we did that...

I discovered that there was a Game Jam to be happening just down the road, so had to investigate. Sadly, it turned out that many of the expected attendees had gone to the Glasgow event instead, leaving Edinburgh a bit quiet.

Matt Collings had a weekend residency at Inspace which I went along to peek at.

And then it was time for the first public event in the Traverse 50 calendar, a performance of the 50 winning plays. This was such a success that they had to put on a second night.

On the last Tuesday of every month the Edinburgh UNESCO City of Literature team host a Literary Salon, for people to meet and - where relevant - network. I rarely publicise images of these events and over time have just added new ones to the same huge set. This was the first of the year though, so I'll give it a mention.

The StAnza poetry festival launched their 2013 programme in the National Library of Scotland, which was something interesting to do on a Wednesday.

And to end the long, long month on a high note, the Edinburgh International Science Festival had their programme launch and followed it up with an early LateLab at Inspace, with talks on patterns by Madeleine Shepherd and Julia Collins, Heather Angel, DJ Dave House and Dr Keith Skene.

Thank goodness January is over!

Impartiality-manay

The 2012-13 New Year celebrations in Edinburgh saw a new format of reportage, "Blogmanay". A cunning portmanteau of Blogger and Hogmanay, remarkably enough this was not an offering from the same team that tried to give us gems like Incrediburgh, Wellfedinburgh and Romanceisnotdeadinburgh; no, this was blogging-style Hogmanay coverage set largely on Tumblr and Storify, which didn't bode well for quality or coherence of content. Unique Events brought a bunch of travel bloggers to Scotland from around the world to witness the Edinburgh's Hogmanay celebrations and go on a wee tour of Scotland - then write about it online. And this apparently came to pass for a measly £50,000.

In the current climate of social media über alles this is nothing surprising. What is surprising is how much they were willing and able to spend on it, considering the trend towards crowdsourced media with no payment. For this, I give them credit.

There is a growing trend in the media to send photographers who can write on assignments, rather than a journalist and a photographer. This is a big saving and with time and appropriate training I can see it doing very well. What doesn't work very well is having events covered by a multitude of people posting to Instagram.

Yes, this could provide many perspectives on an event. Yes, it's very zeitgeist-ey. No, it's not terribly interesting or useful compared to having skilled workers reporting on things.

Having a large group of people creating many images of an event that are largely the same and of generally poor quality - especially if they've been put through Instagram - does not equate to having a handful of photographers doing the same job. Neither does being a travel blogger require one to be able to write with anything more than coherence and enthusiasm.

I've tried repeatedly to find the narrative of the Blogmanay coverage. I spend most of my time attached to the internet and yet even I find it befuddling. The Storify is haphazard and, thanks to people not necessarily posting things as they happen, in no particular order. The Tumblr seems to be little more than a stream of tweets and Instagrams, surrounded by the Blogmanay branding.

On a side note, does anyone think that "13 Be Lucky" is a good tagline? And am I the only one who finds the animated GIF both tacky and painfully reminiscent of Web 1.0? They may as well have used the BLINK tag.

After the fuss had subsided the bloggers went on a whistlestop tour of the countryside. It's actually at this point that they came into their own, coming across as genuinely having a good time while not quite being frozen. Alas, the compilation of the post-Homanay Blogmanay stream with the Edinburgh events does further damage to the online summaries. Is #Blogmanay a torchlit procession, a rainy day by a bothy, a dip in the Forth, a fireworks display, a gig?

As a tourism initiative it can only be counted as a success. With so many posts and images showcasing Scotland to followers around the world, the country will surely see the benefit. However, this aspect is not the one that is touted by the organisers. One would think that by having established bloggers reporting on an event there would be exciting, well-rounded coverage; in reality it has been little more than a sponsored holiday for those involved, and much to my surprise they have unanimously praised the treats they were given.

The official line is:

Together with partners EventScotland, VisitScotland, Edinburgh Tourism Action Group (ETAG), Festivals Edinburgh, Haggis Adventures and Skyscanner, Edinburgh’s Hogmanay are hosting 21 travel bloggers from around the world to experience Edinburgh and Scotland as one of the world’s premier New Year destinations.

To my mind there is a clear implication there that these bloggers would be reviewing their experiences, whereas they seem to have mostly just raved about it. I can't believe that 21 blogger can agree about everything! To give the bloggers their due, when reporting back on their exploits they've made the point of listing the organisations involved, so at least they're not pretending to be unbiased.

But the actual coverage of the Blogmanay exploits on these blogs is minimal, and mostly restricted to one summary post. I had expected this to be a cross-platform multimedia extravaganza with 21 different streams of discussion, not a lot of simple photographs with hashtag-heavy captions.

As a concept I was not opposed to Blogmany - although I did hate the title, catchy or not. Sadly, I have not been impressed by the practicalities. Perhaps in the future - and it's been successful enough that this sort of thing will be back before long - they will pull it together into a tighter and more professional process.

It's not a bad idea, I think it may just be too soon for it to work on anything other than a promotional level. In my mind somebody had a Great Idea and expected others to make it so without enough time or resources to fully realise its potential. Or perhaps this is the future, and the only people who will get paid are the "digital media experts" while the content creators are squeezed into ill-fitting roles as tag-happy Instagrammers.

My own little disclaimer: last year I did some work for Edinburgh's Hogmanay and did not this year, as a result of the changes in the structure of the coverage; this is why I was eager to see how things went. I am, however, joined by many who cannot be accused of any bias in being disappointed by the outcome.