July 29, 2010 - 17:29 
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Port Eliot Festival 2010; Liter-ally Amazing!
Tags: Port Eliot Festival
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Saltash The Port Eliot Festival is one of Britain’s most important literary events, but being hosted in St Germans every July, it gives the often forgotten South-West a real opportunity to make its mark for once: emerging Cornish writers step forward now.
This year, local arts-funding program FEAST sponsored the under 25’s tent, a chance for the untapped and undiscovered to test the waters in a hospitable environment. This tent was packed most evenings, (and not just with their parents!) Dance, magic, music, poetry and even a Bolly Wood dance workshop all took place in a marquee managed produced and designed solely by a team of young guns. Being the home of CornwallsCoolest.com, we were pleased to see a few Penzance performers holding it down.
Jarvis Cocker and Alabama 3 (- you know, The Sopranos theme tune) provided a bit of sing along but there were also a sea of upcoming indie bands to take your pick from, and as Port Eliot doesn’t believe in VIP areas many guests remained approachable throughout the weekend.
Literary royalty including Dame Margret Drabble, Diana Athill and Geoff Dyer all gave seminars and read extracts from their work. However if you’re a bit ropey with names, buying an official festival programme would’ve been your best option. Though a tad steep at a fiver a pop, it provided every scrap of info that might be needed, including a guide of biographies and headshots.
For me, it helped to know that Toby Young was actually the author of ‘How to Loose Friends and Alienate People’ rather than the pancake vendor I mistook him for, and later, that it was actually award-winning film director Julian Temple (The Filth and the Fury) doing a Q and A rather than Larry Love.
The little white tent perched on the top of the hill - profwriting.com had a jam packed itinerary ranging from open mic opportunities to radio and theatre workshops. Loosely affiliated with University College Falmouth, growing website profwriting.com lends support regionally, to any aspiring writer, and provides a vital space in which to share and exchange material.
The performance of the weekend had to go to Mik Artistik; a northerner guaranteed to split your sides with satirised tales of seemingly, very ordinary pockets of life. Done in a way you’ll have never quite experienced in your life, Mik is a festival-regular, having gone down a storm at Glastonbury, his performance art set incorporates rock and roll and clever word play; you’ll be singing his choruses for weeks…
Surrounded by woodlands, vast green lawns, a huge (if muddy!) swimming lake and a stately home open to the public, any age can enjoy Port Eliot. With approximately only 6,000 people each year it’s the ultimate retreat, but don’t worry, if it’s a shin dig you’re after most cocktail bars stay open til 3am. Being well behaved is only an option.
Review By Jessica Mayne
Visit www.porteliotfestival.com
Great Event Lovely Venue and even better weather this year, We really appreciated the extra night camping, we managed to be more organised using the well thought out program, the extra night and program made a huge difference, The only blight was the curtailing of Edward Foxes amazing recital of TS Eliotts "Waste Land" 5 minutes from completion; just because it had over run and the house was to be open to the £5 paying public!!