Nigel Ford reports…
On Sunday, 18th November, 2018, the 6th Annual Goolwa Poetry Cup event was held at the Fleurieu Distillery, Goolwa Wharf.
I attended at the venue to set up the facilities with Elise Silson. Leah Grace, Arts Officer of Alexandrina Council & Gareth Andrews, Manager of the venue also helped with setting up, which was finished just after 11:00 am. Sign-up for competitors opened at 11:30 am and was staffed by Margaret Clark, Secretary of Friendly Street Poets. Judges for the event were Jude Aquilina, Ian Gibbins & Elise Silson. Timekeeper was Margaret Clark.
The event started about 12:25 pm after the Cockle Train left Goolwa Station. Three heats were run in succession, with a break between Heats 2 and 3. 23 poets entered the competition with 8 each performing in Heats 1 and 2, with 7 in Heat 3.
The level of competition was very high, this being a trend which has continued since inception in 2013. The variety of poetry and age groups were well represented with one poet in their teens and two poets over 60 years old.
Heat 1 Qualifiers were Gilumol (Jill) Saji, Stephen House & Shaine Melrose.
Heat 2 Qualifiers were Emelia Haskey, Tegan Sabine & Chrissy.
Heat 3 Qualifiers were Kelly Lee Cusak, Jill Gloyne & Andrew Drake.
The Goolwa Cup Winner was Stephen House who won $1,000 and will have his named engraved on the perpetual trophy to join the previous five winners’ names. The Runner Up was Shaine Melrose who won $200. The People’s Choice Poet was Aislinn Rossi who won $100. All other finalists won $50 each for making it to the Final.
An Open Mic was held between the Heats and the Final while the Cockle Train was in the Station replacing the Junior Poetry Cup, which had very few children attending, which I believe was due to the venue being a distillery. Seventeen poets participated in the Open Mic in two sessions with the Final held in between allowing the Judges time to tally the scores. Twelve poets read in the 1st session and five read in the 2nd session.
Raffle tickets were sold with two lots of prize draws held, one at the end of the heats and the 2nd during the tallying of the final scores. Eight prizes were won in the 1st draw and eight prizes in the 2nd. A bottle of gin was donated by the Fleurieu Distillery, another bottle of gin was donated by Nigel Ford, a bottle of wine was donated by Geoff Aitken, and the rest of the prizes were bought from the Poetry On The Fleurieu fees and raffles funds raised at the monthly readings.
Major Financial Support for this event was provided by:
• Alexandrina Council – $500
• Friendly Street Poets – $400
• Phillip Bonner – $500 personal donation (2nd year running)
• An anonymous personal donor – $100
Entry Fees for the event generated $230 and the raffle raised $157. The balance of the costs was covered from Poetry On The Fleurieu funds and Nigel Ford.
Thank you to all who helped make this event the success it was:
• Gareth Andrews & family & the crew at the Fleurieu Distillery for providing the sound system, the venue & the service.
• Leah Grace & the Alexandrina Council for all the support over the last 5 1/2 years. Your level of support for the arts in this state is unsurpassed by any other council!
• Friendly Street Poets Committee for supporting this event from the get-go. The initial funding to kick regional poetry events off in 2013 was how it came into being and the continued funding year on year is a big reason why the annual Goolwa Poetry Cup has become the Premier one-off Poetry Slam event in SA.
• I have to give a very warm thank you and lots of gratitude to Margaret Clark for volunteering to help me run this event.
• The Judges, Jude Aquilina, Ian Gibbins & Elise Silson need to be praised to the stars and back, because the hardest job in any poetry slam when the standard of competition is sooooo high is the judging.
• And a huge thank you to Trentino Priori for bringing your cameras and recording the day’s event.
• Thank you to the poets who came down to compete; the poets who read at the Open Mic; and the audience who came along to support this artform, lent us your ears, bought raffle tickets and applauded all the performances.
I could not be happier with how this event turned out!
Nigel Ford