Annikki Poetry Festival (est. 2003) has grown to be one of Finland’s foremost poetry events. The festival’s focus is still on poetry, although it has expanded to also include prose, music and the visual arts. The Annikki Poetry Festival aims to vitalize contemporary poetics and to put together surprising combinations of performers, as well as redefine the very boundaries of what poetry events can be.

In addition to Finnish performers, the festival also regularly features high profile international luminaries. Performance poets to have partaken in the festival in recent years include Joelle Taylor, Yumi Fuzuki, Gregory Pardlo, Mutabaruka, Anne Waldman, Kido Shuri, Nikky Finney, John Cooper Clarke, John Giorno, Jaan Kaplinski – many of whom had never been previously featured in Finland. Our Finnish performers always represent both more established authors and more recent contemporary voices.The Art Director of Annikki Poetry Festival is poet J.K. Ihalainen.

The venue of the Annikki Poetry Festival is a 100-year-old wooden town quarter in the centre of Tampere city, which has served as a very special, warm and welcoming milieu for poets and audience to meet and mingle. The Annikki Poetry Festival is a non-profit event organized by volunteers.

The next Annikki Poetry Festival will take place on 8 June 2024.

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