Did you know that around half of all the events, installations, exhibitions and interactive activities at our annual festival are free and unticketed? We’re committed to ensuring that cost shouldn’t stop anyone from coming to StAnza, so we strive to keep our prices for ticketed events reasonable while at the same time offering plenty which are completely free. Of course if you’d like to make a donation to help with future festivals that would be great. All donations, large and small, are very welcome. There are donation jars at the Festival Desk in the Byre and at the Ticket Desk in the Town Hall – but that’s entirely up to you and no-one should feel that a donation is expected.
So here’s a run down on what’s free this year.
Wed 04 March | 6.30-7.10pm | Festival & Exhibitions Launch
Our special guest launches the festival with a taster of poetry and music
The Byre Theatre, Abbey Street – Level 2 Foyer | Free
Wed 04 March | 9.10-9.45pm | The Flatcaps at StAnza
Some lively music for this year’s opening night
The Byre Theatre, Abbey Street – Level 1 | Free
Wed 04 March | 9.45-11.30pm | The Inklight Poets
Student poetry showcase
The Byre Theatre, Abbey Street – Café Bar | Free
Thu 05 March | 10.00-11.15am | Poetry Walk: A Fair Trade in Verse
A poetic stroll around town led by Anna Crowe
The Byre Theatre, Abbey Street – Theatre Garden | Free
Thu 05 March | 10.30-11.15am | Inspire Session
A brief session to prompt your own creativity
The Byre Theatre, Abbey Street – Level 2 Foyer | Free
Thu 05 March | 12.15-3.30pm | Musings@MUSA
A brief session to prompt your own creativity
MUSA (Museum of the University of St Andrews), The Scores | Free
Drop-in anytime between 12.15pm and 3.30pm
Thu 05 March | 10.00-11.30pm | Jazz Night at StAnza: Lorna Reid’s Lounge Session
Music from Lorna Reid with a spot for the occasional poem
The Byre Theatre, Abbey Street – Café Bar | Free
Fri 06 March | 10.30-11.15am | Inspire Session
A brief session to prompt your own creativity
The Byre Theatre, Abbey Street – Level 2 Foyer | Free
Fri 06 March | 12.15-3.30pm | Musings@MUSA
A brief session to prompt your own creativity
MUSA (Museum of the University of St Andrews), The Scores | Free
Drop-in anytime between 12.15pm and 3.30pm
Fri 06 March | 12.30-1.00pm | Meet the Artist
Meet Kevin Reid, the artist/poet behind the >erasure exhibition
The Town Hall, Queens Gardens – Foyer/FCA&C | Free
Fri 06 March | 3.30-4.30pm | Poems Aloud: University Library Poetry Recitation Competition
Listen as judges choose the best recitation or performance of a published poem
University of St Andrews Library | Free
Fri 06 March | 4.00-4.45pm | Meet the Artist
Meet Margaret Bathgate and James Knox Whittet, the artist and poet behind Voices and Images of Islay
Public Library, Church Square – Meeting Room | Free
Fri 06 March | 6.15-7.15pm | Quiet Open Mic
An early evening open mic
Zest Juicing and Coffee Bar, South Street | Free
Fri 06 March | 10.15-11.30pm | Risk A Verse
Open Mic with MC Jim Carruth
The Byre Theatre, Abbey Street – Café Bar | Free
Sat 07 March | 10.30am-3.30pm | The Emergency Poet
Consult The Emergency Poet and see what poems she prescribes
Public Library, Church Square – Outside the Public Library | Free
Sat 07 March | 10.30-11.15am | Inspire Session
A brief session to prompt your own creativity
The Byre Theatre, Abbey Street – Level 2 Foyer | Free
Sat 07 March | 12.00-4.00pm | Poetry Market
Presses big and small, pamphlets, magazines, curated by Alan Gay
The Town Hall, Queens Gardens – Supper Room | Free
Sat 07 March | 12.00-2.00pm | Poetry Theatre
Poetic Interventions
The Byre Theatre, Abbey Street – Foyers | Free
Sat 07 March | 12.00-1.00pm | Meet the Artist
Meet the artist and poet behind ‘I Love St Andrews’ the new guide to Scotland’s poetry town
The Byre Theatre, Abbey Street – Conference Room | Free
Sat 07 March | 12.15-3.30pm | Musings@MUSA
A brief session to prompt your own creativity
MUSA (Museum of the University of St Andrews), The Scores | Free
Drop-in anytime between 12.15pm and 3.30pm
Sat 07 March | 2.15-3.15pm | Meet the Artist
A chance to meet the artist and poet behind the BodySearches/Poetry Machine
The Byre Theatre, Abbey Street – Conference Room | Free
Sat 07 March | 3.55-4.00pm | Leaving the Comfort Zone Performance
Poetry Improvisation Workshop Performance with Robin Vaughan-Williams and workshop participants
The Town Hall, Queens Gardens – Supper Room | Free
Sat 07 March | 4.00-4.45pm | Meet the Artist
Meet some of the artists involved in the PRESERVED between the image and the word exhibition
The Trust Museum, North Street | Free
Sat 07 March | 6.15-7.15pm | Poetry Theatre
Poetic Interventions
The Byre Theatre, Abbey Street – Foyers | Free
Sat 07 March | 6.15-6.45pm | Book launch – War and Poetry
New Scottish poems inspired by Italy’s great Giuseppe Ungaretti, with Katherine Lockton, Carlo Pirozzi
J&G Innes Ltd, Booksellers, South Street | Free
Sat 07 March | 7.00-7.30pm | Palestinian Poetry
Festival poets read poems by Palestinian poets
The Byre Theatre, Abbey Street – Studio Theatre | Free
Sun 08 March | 12.00-2.00pm | Poetry Theatre
Poetic Interventions
The Byre Theatre, Abbey Street – Foyers | Free
Sun 08 March | 12.15-3.30pm | Musings@MUSA
A brief session to prompt your own creativity
MUSA (Museum of the University of St Andrews), The Scores | Free
Drop-in anytime between 12.15pm and 3.30pm
Sun 08 March | 3.00-5.00pm | Meet the Artist
Meet Kenny Munro, the artist behind the Poetic Voyaging installation at the Preservation Trust Museum
The Trust Museum, North Street | Free
Sun 08 March | 3.30-4.45pm | Nort Atlantik Drift
A film about the Shetlandic poet and novelist, Robert Alan Jamieson
The Byre Theatre, Abbey Street – Auditorium | Free
Sun 08 March | 6.15-7.15pm | Poetry Theatre
Poetic Interventions
The Byre Theatre, Abbey Street – Foyers | Free
Sun 08 March | 10.00-11.30pm | Festival Finale
The festival ends with a musical send-off from the Black Cat Jook Band
The Byre Theatre, Abbey Street – Café Bar | Free
Exhibitions, Films and Installations
05-08 March | 10.00am-8.00pm | Unfinished Haiku
Haiku scrabble anyone?
The Byre Theatre, Abbey Street – Level 2 Festival Desk | Free
Mon 02 February – Sun 08 March | 10.00am-10.00pm | Places and Faces
Karen Cairns, StAnza 2014 Artist in Residence, captures moments during the festival
The Byre Theatre, Abbey Street – Level 1 | Free
Wed 04 – Sun 08 March | 10.00am-10.00pm | DIN: Unfinished
Digital installation of the DIN magazine’s Unfinished issue
The Byre Theatre, Abbey Street – Foyers | Free
Repeated at intervals between 10.00am and 10.00pm
Wed 04 – Sun 08 March | 10.00am-10.00pm | Bridging the Time Divide
Specially commissioned new versions of poems from Scotland’s lost language
The Byre Theatre, Abbey Street – Foyers | Free
Repeated at intervals between 10.00am and 10.00pm
Wed 04 – Sun 08 March | 10.00am-10.00pm | Children’s Poetry Competition Display
Winning Junior Poets from Fife Schools
The Byre Theatre, Abbey Street – Level 2 Foyer | Free
Wed 04 – Sun 08 March | 10.00am-10.00pm | Digital Poetry Trail of St Andrews
Follow the trail around town and listen to the poems
Around the festival and around St Andrews | Free
Wed 04 – Sun 08 March | 10.00am-10.00pm | An Archipelago of Poems
Island poems from the Poetry Map of Scotland
The Byre Theatre, Abbey Street – and around town | Free
Repeated at intervals between 10.00am and 10.00pm
Wed 04 – Sun 08 March | 10.00am-10.00pm | Grove
Semi-permanent text interventions by Thomas A. Clark
The Byre Theatre, Abbey Street – Foyers | Free
Wed 04 – Sun 08 March | 10.00am-10.00pm | War and Poetry
Italy’s great Giuseppe Ungaretti and poems he inspired
The Byre Theatre, Abbey Street – Foyers | Free
Repeated at intervals between 10.00am and 10.00pm
Wed 04 – Sun 08 March | 10.00am-10.00pm | I Love St Andrews
Views of an illustrated guide to the home of StAnza
The Byre Theatre, Abbey Street – Foyers | Free
Repeated at intervals between 10.00am and 10.00pm
Wed 04 – Sun 08 March | 10.00am-10.00pm | Poetry Loops
Loop showings of films by Donna-Lisa Healy, Sophie Cooke, Kenny Munro & Edward O’Donnelly, Jenny Lewis, Purple Patch Arts, Ties to the Tay, Sean Martin, Louise Milne
The Byre Theatre, Abbey Street – Conference Room | Free
Except during events in the Conference Room – see programme
Wed 04 – Sun 08 March | 10.00am-10.00pm | Still Archipelagoes
Four silent poem-films by Ian Stephen and Christine Morrison
The Byre Theatre, Abbey Street – Foyers | Free
Wed 04 – Sun 08 March | 10.00am-10.00pm | Will Maclean
Will Maclean’s recent collaborations with poets: The Island Road, and A Catechism of the Laws of Storms
The Byre Theatre, Abbey Street – Level 4 Gallery | Free
Wed 04 – Sun 08 March | 10.00am-10.00pm | Cover Story
Cover art from small presses
The Byre Theatre, Abbey Street – Level 2 Foyer | Free
Wed 04 – Sun 08 March | 10.00am-10.00pm | BodySearches/PoetryMachine
3D software art and poetry from Jon Ståle Ritland, Michiel Koelink
The Byre Theatre, Abbey Street – Foyers | Free
Repeated at intervals between 10.00am and 10.00pm
Wed 04 – Sun 08 March | 12.00-8.00pm | One Old Onion
Artist Susan Wilson and poet Jenny Elliott offer a poetic 5-a-day
The Byre Theatre, Abbey Street – Café Bar | Free
Thu 05 – Sun 08 March | 10.00am-5.00pm | >erasure
Poet/artist Kevin Reid’s collaboration with other poets and artists in a process of erasure, added text and visual art
The Town Hall, Queens Gardens – Foyer/FCA&C | Free
Thu 05 – Sun 08 March | 11.00am-5.00pm | Poetic Voyaging
Scotland Brittany – Text which travels translated as mirror and stone, by Kenny Munro
The Trust Museum, North Street | Free
Thu 05 – Sun 08 March | 11.00am-5.00pm | PRESERVED between the image and the word
A collaborative response to the Bell Pettigrew Collection by artists Kyra Clegg, Patricia Bray, Elaine Allison and poet Anna Crowe
The Trust Museum, North Street | Free
Thu 05 – Sun 08 March | 12.00-4.00pm | Meridian Lines
Tribute poems for Gregory’s Meridian, by Anna Crowe
MUSA (Museum of the University of St Andrews), The Scores | Free
Thu 05 – Sat 07 March | 1.00-5.00pm | Voices and Images of Islay
An intimate portrait of a Scottish island by Margaret Bathgate and James Knox Whittet
Public Library, Church Square – Meeting Room | Free
You can see the programme online at http://issuu.com/stanza/docs/stanza_brochure_2015_sml/0 or view the whole programme online at http://www.stanzapoetry.org.
the StAnza Blog 
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