Byline Festival

I headed down to Pippingford Park (somewhere near Uckfield/East Grinstead) for the first Byline Festival, a celebration of independent journalism hosted by the publication of the same name. I got there in time to hear what was described as a "keynote rant" from John Cleese on the subject of press regulation, on which he made a number of salient points and showed that he hasn't lost his sense of comic timing. Also, it was John freaking Cleese.

He returned later for the Bad Press Awards, honouring those who had besmirched the reputation of journalism in the previous year, alongside the likes of Hardeep Singh Kohli and Joanna Scanlan. It particular, Scanlan's article recaps were excellent, wringing every drop of humour out of absurd pieces. Exposing the blatant involvement of Eharmony was one such highlight.

I had gone to the festival to support Sophie Cameron who appeared as part of the Livewire Salon late on Saturday night. I always enjoy Sophie's stuff because I think she brings blunt hilarity to her poems amongst other things. But I cannot say that I'm a huge fan of the artform in general and often find performance poetry repetitive and formulaic. Saturday's show was the best poetry event that I've been to, with a number of strong acts. Is act the right word? I don't know. I didn't necessarily agree with everything that was said ( if you see a man reveal a Jeremy Corbyn t-shirt moments after going on stage, you know what's going to follow), but I greatly admired the passion, the eloquence and sense of conviction on display.

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