HillsFest is a new festival of art & music for North Sheffield, taking place in Hillsborough Park over the weekend of 9 and 10 July. Alongside a live music stage, creative showcases, makers’ activity and taste zones, the festival includes a two-day programme of spoken word in the Bowling Green Pavilion (accessible from Middlewood Road), featuring poetry readings, collaborative performances, music, talks and more. Several Longbarrow Press poets are featured in the line-up, including special performances from James Caruth, Matthew Clegg, Pete Green, Rob Hindle, Chris Jones and Fay Musselwhite; the programme also includes talks by Amanda Crawley Jackson, Mark Doyle and Karl Hurst, and words and music from Ray Hearne and Rommi Smith. All events in the Pavilion are free; no booking is necessary. Bowling Green Pavilion,
Hillsborough Park, Middlewood Road, Sheffield, S6 4HD, 9 & 10 July (12pm-9pm).
Click here to see the full spoken word line-up and running order, and visit the HillsFest website for the full festival programme.

‘Digital technology is how many of us now encounter places that we cannot afford to visit. However, access to this technology is far from universal. A little over 80 years ago, Kinder Scout was the sole province of the Duke of Devonshire and the grouse-shooting gentry. The right to roam physical territory has since been established, but no comparable rights of access to digital space exist; in an age in which almost everyone is expected to register online for basic services, many are digitally excluded.’ In a new post for the Longbarrow Blog, Brian Lewis considers the relationship between virtual maps, physical space, trespass and belonging, reflecting on his own practices (as editor and publisher of Longbarrow Press, and as a walker and writer) and the question of community in both digital and physical terrain. Click here to read ‘Field Systems’.

A bird I can’t name
trills like a rag on soapy glass –
a squeak with a chime in it.
Our current Featured Poem is Matthew Clegg‘s ‘Brigand’ (from The Navigators, his second Longbarrow Press collection). Click here to read the poem, and to hear Clegg
reading ‘Brigand’ in a bird hide on the edge of Denaby Ings nature reserve. The Navigators is one of seven Longbarrow Press hardbacks included in our new selection of Limited Offers for July; choose 3 hardbacks for £30 and save up to £8.97. Click here for further details.

Photographs: Karl Hurst (1), Brian Lewis (3). Click here to view more images in Karl Hurst’s Recovered Landscapes series.