The Bigfoot Poetry Festival

The Bigfoot Poetry Festival Three-day poetry festival + slam tournament 🎤
Portland, OR 🌲
Returning in 2026 ✨
Check out our links below 👇
https://linktr.ee/bigfootpoetry

The Bigfoot Poetry Festival is a three-day event which floats around during the summer. In 2024, you can spot us in downtown Portland, Oregon Thursday June 13th through Saturday June 15th.

Tonight’s the night! Who will clinch the very real, very much official Slam Olympics gold medal?! Most importantly, who ...
06/01/2026

Tonight’s the night! Who will clinch the very real, very much official Slam Olympics gold medal?! Most importantly, who will win the most coveted raffle item?! Put in the highest auction bid??!? Only one way to find out... See y’all at Barrel Room tonight 🏅 Doors at 6:30pm. Show starts promptly at 7pm! Get your presale tickets and find more info here - https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-slam-olympics-w-auction-raffle-tickets-1989064893641

Here’s a sneak peek of some of the wonderful items up for auction / raffle at tomorrow night’s show! Get in a bidding br...
06/01/2026

Here’s a sneak peek of some of the wonderful items up for auction / raffle at tomorrow night’s show! Get in a bidding brawl over a piece of art you MUST have! Throw a couple of raffle tickets in for a basket brimming with goodies! Along with the Slam Olympics antics, you won’t want to miss out on taking home one or more of these items!!

Join us tomorrow at Barrel Room on June 1st at 7:00pm for this event (make sure to get there a little early, doors at 6:30 PM, to start bidding on auction items!). Presale tickets still available!!

We once more want to thank our donors: Airlie Press, Urbaca Salon, David Cooke’s Poetry Box, Creepy Girl Trap, Cinema 21, Died In The Wool, Bubbles (), Bea Roth (), Lan Su Chinese Garden, The Bathtub Poet, Rose City Guitar Company, Nuwa Acupuncture, Boca Ardiente, The People’s Poets, and more!

We are just 26 DAYS out from this year's festival! Here are some pictures from the 2025 Finals Stage (held at First Cong...
05/30/2026

We are just 26 DAYS out from this year's festival! Here are some pictures from the 2025 Finals Stage (held at First Congregational United Church). These pictures were taken by Aileen Sheedy. If one or more of these photos are of you and you’d like a high-res version, please email [email protected]. If you snag a picture of yourself, please credit Aileen for taking the photo!!

We’re shouting out a bunch of our donors for our upcoming auction + raffle, happening at Slam Olympics next Monday (June...
05/29/2026

We’re shouting out a bunch of our donors for our upcoming auction + raffle, happening at Slam Olympics next Monday (June 1st) at Barrel Room Portland!

We’ll be showing off pictures of some actual baskets and items this weekend, but for now we want to extend our gratitude for the generosity of these people, artists, businesses, and organizations! Check out their pages to learn more about each of them, and come out to Slam Olympics on Monday to bid on / put in a raffle ticket for any of their items / services!!

— Rose City Guitar Company - Gift card for free guitar lessons
— Airlie Press - Five PNW poetry books
— Lan Su Chinese Garden - Tickets to the garden and tea cups
— Died In The Wool (Jane Belinda) - Felted art piece
— Boca Ardiente - T-shirt
— Urbaca Salon (Urbaca Salon) - Salon gift card and products
— Creepy Girl Trap - Basket of goodies
— David Cooke (Poetry Box) - Poetry box
— Nuwa Acupuncture - 10 acupuncture treatment package
— Cinema 21 (Cinema 21) - Movie tickets
— Linden (Millennial Hissy Fit) - Logo design
— Bea Roth - Cross stitch art
— Several local poets and artists who are donating their books, art, homemade goodies, and more!

We are shouting out some more of our programming lined up for this year's festival!Here are all of the events scheduled ...
05/28/2026

We are shouting out some more of our programming lined up for this year's festival!

Here are all of the events scheduled for the Hyatt Centric Downtown Portland (601 SW 11th Ave) on June 25th - 27th. These events are taking place in the Pettygrove room on the Hyatt's second floor. These poetry open mics, slams, and morning events are open for anyone to take part in. Whether you're a registered poet, a member of the Portland community, or someone who traveled to be with us. Not to mention all of these events are FREE!

There will also be workshops happening at the Hyatt Centric on these same days. More to come on those soon!

Down below you'll find the dates and times for each of these Hyatt events, as well as individual event links. Click here for more details on our schedule - https://www.bigfootpoetryfestival.com/schedule

★★★★★★★★★★

Thursday, June 25th::

★ 9:00am - 10:00am – Yoga & Guided Meditation – hosted by Tomi Simmons - https://www.eventbrite.com/e/thursday-morning-guided-yoga-meditation-tickets-1990455183034
★ 12:00pm - 1:00pm – Feel Good Poetry Open Mic – hosted by Grace Hoover - https://www.eventbrite.com/e/bigfoot-fest-the-feel-good-poetry-open-mic-tickets-1990537070963
★ 2:00pm - 3:00pm – Haiku Death Match – hosted by TBA - https://www.eventbrite.com/e/bigfoot-fest-haiku-death-match-tickets-1990207727889

★★★★★★★★★★

Friday, June 26th::

★ 9:00am - 10:00am – Vocal Warms Ups – hosted by Maestro DeSean - https://www.eventbrite.com/e/friday-morning-vocal-warm-ups-tickets-1990455653441
★ 10:00am - 11:30am – Nerd Poetry Slam – hosted by Julia Gaskill - https://www.eventbrite.com/e/bigfoot-fest-the-nerd-poetry-slam-tickets-1990457636372
★ 12:00pm - 1:30pm – Poetry Team Showcase – hosted by Camille T. McDaniel - https://www.eventbrite.com/e/bigfoot-poetry-festival-team-showcase-tickets-1989756996740
★ 2:00pm - 3:00pm – Compliment Death Match – hosted by R.F. Penn - https://www.eventbrite.com/e/bigfoot-fest-the-compliment-death-match-tickets-1990207728892

★★★★★★★★★★

Saturday, June 27th::

★ 11:30am - 12:30pm – Group Piece Poetry Mic - hosted by Stephen Meads - https://www.eventbrite.com/e/bigfoot-fest-group-piece-open-mic-tickets-1990544748928
★ 1:30pm - 2:30pm – New S**t Poetry Open Mic – hosted by Jane Belinda - https://www.eventbrite.com/e/bigfoot-fest-new-st-poetry-open-mic-tickets-1990456556141

We are excited to be returning to both Powell's and the Multnomah County Library this year for some of our festival even...
05/26/2026

We are excited to be returning to both Powell's and the Multnomah County Library this year for some of our festival events! We'll be at the Central Library branch all three days with our affinity mic series (poetry open mics intended for folks to speak towards their identities and lived experiences). Then we'll be at Powell's City of Books the first two evenings for half of our poetry slam tournament (with our other prelim venue being The Wanderlust Kitchen & Bar on the first floor of the Hyatt Centric).

The Bigfoot Poetry Festival is now listed on both the Powell‘s and Multnomah County Library website calendars. You can check each site out for more information on this programming (as well as a plethora of other amazing literary events they host!). The Bigfoot organizers thank both these Portland establishments for donating their space, helping us put on another excellent festival for the community and incoming poets this year.

Begin fueling your hype jets, we're just ONE MONTH away from the Bigfoot Poetry Festival returning to Portland. This yea...
05/25/2026

Begin fueling your hype jets, we're just ONE MONTH away from the Bigfoot Poetry Festival returning to Portland. This year's schedule is super fly! A reminder (except for Finals Stage) the entire festival is 100% free to attend. We can't wait to see your poems here in the Rose City!

We're shouting out two of our favorite death-defying events that we're bringing back this year to the festival: Haiku De...
05/22/2026

We're shouting out two of our favorite death-defying events that we're bringing back this year to the festival: Haiku Death Match and Compliment Death Match!

Both of these events are happening at the Hyatt Centric Downtown Portland. Haiku will be on June 25th (Thursday) at 2:00pm, and Compliment on June 26th (Friday) at 2:00pm.

Haiku Death Match will see poets go through a head-to-head bracket competing with nothing but poems in the form of haiku (no trying to sneak in any extra syllables!). Poets must bring 30 haiku or more to take part. They can be traditional nature inspired haiku, or poets can get creative and do their take on the form. Host is TBA. For more information: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/bigfoot-fest-haiku-death-match-tickets-1990207727889

In Compliment Death Match, we'll see poets also go through a head-to-head bracket, this time giving out sweet compliments to their opponent. These compliments can be pre-written, memorized, and/or improvised in the moment. Poets will get 30 seconds to give their compliment. Poets should plan on having at least 14 compliments overall. Host is R.F. Penn. For more information: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/bigfoot-fest-the-compliment-death-match-tickets-1990207728892

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Portland, OR
97086-97299

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