By Lesley Benzie on behalf of the Wee Gaitherin
A poetry festival with a difference returns to the wee coastal town of Stonehaven in September – promising to showcase talented poets from the renowned to the unknown.
The Wee Gaitherin has fast gained a reputation as an outlier on the Scottish cultural calendar. For a start, it takes place far distant from the central belt with an emphasis on the depth and range of talent across the regions of Scotland.
Next, it is free for audiences to attend so that ability to pay is never a factor in who comes through the doors.
And then there are the poets themselves – more than 60 writers of all styles and skills, from the quiet to the loud, and from sonneteers to outright performers,. That includes poets of international repute, such as the 2025 World Slam Champion, award-winners and ‘well-kent faces’ to those who are little known or just starting out. And they all get to read on an equal footing – in English, Scots and Gaelic.
This year’s festival will take place from Thursday-Saturday September 3-5 in the main function hall at Number 44 Hotel, Allardice Street – see poster at bottom
The opening night highlight is a Scots Showcase, celebrating contemporary Scots language poets from across Scotland, supported by Hands Up for Trad funding. In addition, there will book stalls and publishers’ displays, workshops on Friday and Saturday mornings at the festival venue, a one-hour reading by a group of writers on the theme of ‘Resistance, Peace and Justice’.
“It’s a ‘big broth’ of an event,” festival founder Neil Young said.
Stonehaven-based poet and publisher Neil launched the event in 2021 and the first festival took place on the weekend lockdown ended.
“It was lightly curated,” said Neil. “Too many festivals revolve around the ‘usual suspects’ of Scottish poetry – those deemed to be the great or the good – or they lean into vogueishness. So you can see why so many people shy away from what they see as a bit of a bourgeois merry-go-round.
”We decided to do the opposite. It didn’t matter who you were – you could be a Pulitzer Prize winner but if you wanted to take part you’d get no more prominence than someone who’d emerged from a school poetry group, or who’d never or rarely read in public before. The idea was to reinforce equality alongside quality and offer a platform for burgeoning and often overlooked talent. The result was that the festival became a draw for poets who shared that outlook.”
Five years on, the Wee Gaitherin hasn’t wavered from its founding ethos. And central to that is that remains free to attend for audience.
Free to attend thanks to sponsors and generosity
Poet and trustee Lesley Benzie said: “We’re free at the point of delivery, like the NHS, because a vibrant culture that exists from the grassroots up is essential to our overall good health, and we were adamant that no-one should be excluded or deterred from attending on the basis of not having a few quid in their purse or wallet, or finding the ticket price a burden. Especially in these straitened times.
”Quite a few of us involved in the festival come from upbringings where books were a bit of a luxury, to be honest, and the free library was our window on the world. And back then – not so long ago – poetry often felt as if it had been colonised by the well-off, who set the standards to which we should also aspire. We’re pleased to be kicking against that.”
As part of that approach, the Wee Gaitherin is involved in extensive outreach work to promote aspiring talent in the community. The festival’s year-round activities have included Wee Words Open Mic nights, collaborating with poetry/open mic events locally and across Scotland, workshops in Mackie Academy and Stonehaven community, and exhibitions.
In 2024, the Wee Gaitherin also inaugurated a young poets’ bursary in memory of the poet Sheila Templeton, funding the attendance of a poet, or poets, who might not otherwise be able to afford to take part in the festival. This year the winner of the Sheila Templeton Award is Spencer Mason from Glasgow, who has impressed all as a rising talent in Scottish poetry.
Whilst determined to keep it free to attend, the organisers have had to confront the dilemma of how to source income to cover the costs of participating poets’.
Lesley said: “We are bowled over that the popularity of the festival and its ethos – that poetry should be accessible to everyone – which has meant that poets on the line-up who could afford to pay out of their own pockets to come to Stonehaven to perform, have ‘Paid it Forward’ to allow us to fund those poets, who would otherwise not be able to take part.
”We’re immensely grateful to them and to all our funders, Hugh Fraser Foundation, William Syson Foundation, Granite Heart, Hands Up for Trad and local business sponsors, Whittaker Engineering, who have generously supported us to cover essential costs of staging the festival, linked activities and subsidising the poets’ expenses.”
For information see: weegaitherin.com; email weegaitherin@gmail.com
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