HOW TO MAKE A POETRY FESTIVAL FROM THE DEPTHS

Nols Nathankski takes an hour away from festival organising to talk you through what to expect from the Hold Space Poetry Festival 1-5th October 2026 in the Crypt Gallery.

The Crypt Gallery sits under St Pancras New Church on Euston Road. It was a

burial ground until 1854 and an air raid shelter in the war, and 557 people are

still down there. From 1 to 5 October it is also a poetry festival.

Hold Space: From the Depths is the second edition, after seven sold-out nights

in Holy Week this April that produced a zine assembled overnight. This one goes further down. Twelve resident poets have the run of the crypt for five days, writing in it, recording in it, and performing in the evening work that did not exist that morning. The residency is not a retreat. It is an exposure.

In this episode we go into the stone and find out what it does to a poem. What

happens to your line breaks when the room is cold, the light is bad and the

audience is partly dead. Why a church let a queer poetry organisation in. What

it costs to run a festival the Arts Council turned down and the public paid for

instead.

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