Independent, investigative, in the public interest  Upgrade to paid

ON OUR RADAR

Spork! Christmas special returns

Spork! presents poetry, comedy and live music from Elvis McGonagall, Josie Alford and BopaRhys, with carols from the Exeter Railway Band.

Leigh Curtis

Spork! Christmas special returns for its fourth year on Monday 18 December at Exeter Phoenix with poetry, comedy and live music from Elvis McGonagall, Josie Alford and BopaRhys and carols from the Exeter Railway Band.

Elvis McGonagall Elvis McGonagall

Elvis McGonagall is a comedian, broadcaster and stand-up poet.

A former world poetry slam winner, he regularly appears on BBC Radio 4 including in his two-series sitcom Elvis McGonagall Takes A Look On The Bright Side.

Viva Loch Lomond!, his first poetry collection, was published in 2017. A second collection, Complete & Utter Cult!, was published in 2020.

He also performs with his band, The Resurrectors. Their debut album Gie It Laldy! was released on Bar-Ox Records in 2018, followed by a 4-track EP Oot in Fairy Lights in 2021.

Josie Alford Josie Alford

Josie Alford is a poet and event host from Bristol. She is the co-founder of The Sword Forge Collective, a poetry network with a social change focus.

Her debut poetry collection Faulty Manufacturing was published earlier this year.

Spork! Christmas special will also feature drag artist Bopa Rhys performing festive songs, jokes and stories.

There will also be Christmas carols led by the Exeter Railway Band, a traditional brass band originally founded in 1944.

Bopa Rhys Bopa Rhys

Spork! is a community-led producer of spoken word works. It was founded in 2018 by Exeter poet and artist Chris White.

It holds regular events in Exeter venues that feature local talent with line-ups from across the UK and offers a year-round programme of writing and performance workshops and an artist development programme.

Spork! works with a range of community partners from Newcourt Community Centre to Mothers Who Make.

It has programmed drag queens, brass bands and rappers as well as some of the best spoken-word artists in the UK and beyond, including Buddy Wakefield, Vanessa Kissule and John Hegley.

Subscribe to The Exeter Digest - Exeter Observer's essential free email newsletter

Your personal information will be processed and stored in accordance with our Privacy Policy

Spork! Christmas special is at 7.30pm on Monday 18 December 2023 at Exeter Phoenix.

Tickets cost £12, or £8 for students or under-25s, and are available from the Exeter Phoenix website.

Independent, investigative, in the public interest

Exeter Observer publishes the independent investigative journalism our local democracy needs.

It can do this because it is the city's only news organisation that doesn't have to answer to corporate advertisers, remote shareholders or those in power.

Instead, its not-for-profit public interest business model is simple.

It depends on readers like you to sustain our reporting by contributing a small amount each month.

Lots of people currently chip in like this, but it's not enough to cover our costs. We need more paying subscribers to keep publishing.

136 of the 300 readers we need have signed up so far. Help us reach our goal by joining them today.

Support our work from less than £2/week and get access to exclusive premium content and more.

Upgrade to paid

More stories
Illustrative view of proposed co-living blocks from Heavitree Road

Heavitree Road police station student accommodation and “co-living” scheme consultation extended

Developers revise application for full planning permission for 813-bed seven-block complex submitted in May as similar proposals proliferate across city centre.

Boneyard arcade games

Unique retro games arcade to create new Sidwell Street venue after long search

Boneyard arcade seeking permission to change use of empty Brighthouse retail unit after making way for “co-living” block at previous Red Lion Lane location.

Proposed revised Mary Arches Bartholomew Street East co-living block elevation

Mary Arches “co-living” developer resists “miniscule” room size criticisms as design revisions prompt further consultation

Changes include increased building footprints and removal of twelve rooms to provide eleven communal kitchens – between residents of 297 studios – while gates obstruct pedestrian thoroughfare and site’s historic setting and significance essentially ignored.

September 2025 permitted replacement scheme west elevation

Council denies data and contrives criteria to dismiss community balance concerns in third King Billy student block approval

Exeter Observer analysis finds more students living in city centre than residents as council bid to include PBSA in housing delivery figures weakens local planning policy – but does not remove it from decision-making altogether.

, updated

Grace Road Fields in March

Botched consultation restarted on sale of 8.5 acres of Riverside Valley Park green space

Council land disposal to include rights to lay underground distribution pipework across River Exe floodplain following “low-to-zero carbon” Grace Road Fields heat plant planning approval in face of Environment Agency sequential test concerns.