Big Church Festival, Bible Society and AStepFWD have gotten together to provide poets with an incredible opportunity to perform on not just one but two big stages. Get your voice heard by a generation through the ‘Big Church Poetry Slam’ with auditions now open for all spoken word poetry artists. Within weeks you could be performing live to an audience of hundreds at the AStepFWD’s Poetic event (otherwise known as PIA London) on 4th of May, at Tab London, with finalists getting through to feature on the iconic Big Church Festival Spoken Word stage on the 25th of May (see last year’s winner Nizam Speaks picture above). Whether you are a performance poet, slam poet or spoken word artist this could be your chance to find that winning flow and rise above the din. To enter, prepare a two-minute spoken word piece about a Bible character, record it in one take and submit your audition to us by 15th April.
Big Church Festival, formerly known as Big Church Day Out (BCDO), is the UK’s largest annual Christian music festival taking place on 25-26 May in Wiston, West Sussex. This year’s lineup includes international artists such as Chris Tomlin, Kari Jobe & Cody Carnes, Rend Collective and Sinach. The Spoken Word Stage poets include Dai Woolridge, Storm Cecile and Poetess Jess. Big Church Festival is a non–profit music festival created by Tim Jupp, a founding member of Delirious?, which since it started in 2009 has grown to attract up to 40,000 people. A family-friendly event, it’s an unmissable opportunity to enjoy contemporary Christian Music at its best in a beautiful countryside location.
Partnering with Bible Society for a spoken word competition featuring a Bible character truly is a match made in heaven, given their enduring mission to invite people to discover the Bible for themselves. Even in 2024, what could be more powerful than uttering words inspired by the Word of God that endures forever? Since it was founded in 1804 to provide affordable Bibles especially for the Welsh, The British & Foreign Bible Society as it’s officially known, has not only made hundreds of millions of copies of the Bible available in English, but has taken translations to over 150 countries. We could quickly fill a book with the Bible Society’s incredible legacy! In recent years the focus has become changing the conversation about the Bible in an increasingly secular cultural climate through a number of inspirational campaigns, materials and initiatives aimed at all sections of society.
AStepFWD, a pioneering multimedia organization celebrating its milestone tenth anniversary this year was established by founder O’Neil Dennis to provide a platform to showcase the talent, richness and diversity of emerging Christian music artists by curating monthly UK Christian Charts. In addition to the charts, AStepFWD provides news, information, interviews and runs many live events such as Poetic, iMPACT Conference and perhaps its greatest achievement – the StepFWD Awards. In just three short years StepFWD Awards has become the UK’s definitive Christian & Gospel music awards, warmly supported by artists and with growing influence in the music industry attracting international accolades.
Big Church Poetry Slam auditions are now open with tickets available for Poetic, London from 4th April.
