Hullabaloo is BC’s Youth Spoken Word Festival featuring some of BC’s most talented high school-aged poets sharing work for peers and audiences alike. The festival is a forum where youth tell their stories, explore the issues that matter to them, and connect with poets from across British Columbia to form a community of writers.
School teams come together to compete in slams, learn from workshops, and witness great feature poets. Events at the festival include a two-day poetry slam tournament, mini master classes with professional poets, the ever-popular All Star Slam showcase, and the Hullabaloo Finals with an incredible headlining artist. Schools from around the province are invited to attend.
Registration for teams opens on November 2nd, 2026. Registration is $300 and is non-refundable. Registration includes:
For more detailed information about Hullabaloo or for related requests, please contact the Youth Coordinator at wordplay@vancouverpoetryhouse.com.
KEY DETAILS
General Registration: Monday, November 2nd, 2026
Festival Dates: Thu, April 22nd to Sat, April 24th, 2027
Preliminary Slams: Fri, April 23rd & Sat, April 24th
Finals: Sat, April 24th
Location: Vancouver Acting School (Maps)
EVENT OVERVIEW
“The point is not the POINTS – the point is the POETRY!”
Hullabaloo welcomes up to 16 teams representing BC schools participate in a poetry slam tournament. Each team competes in two preliminary competitions (called “bouts”) against other participating teams. Every bout has four rounds during which every participating team shares a poem: the first three rounds feature individual poems and the final round features team poems. (A team poem is any poem featuring two or more principle speakers.) After the preliminary slams are completed, the four highest-ranking teams do it all over again at the Hullabaloo FINALS.
But it’s not all about competition! Hullabaloo embodies the classic poetry slam mantra: the point truly is the poetry! True to the spirit of the slam, while teams compete “against” one another, they are always the loudest and most excitable supporters for one another. Hullabaloo isn’t a slam festival, but rather a celebration of youth voices and a warm, welcoming place for young poets to meet peers from across the province.
Aside from the slam events, the festival welcomes all participating teams to the opening night’s Spoken Word Jamboree, where teams can mix and mingle, perform short introductory poems, and witness a stellar set of poetry from one of the festival’s Alumni of Honour. The next day, all teams are invited to witness the festival’s headlining artists put on a show of their own at the All Star Slam, before taking workshops with those same artists at Saturday morning’s Adventures in Poetryland workshop event. And to wrap it all up? After Finals ends, we roll in with a bunch of pizzas* to celebrate!
What is a poetry slam?
In short, a poetry slam is a competitive format of poetry event. Participating poets share their own original work, subject to a time limit (usually 3 minutes) and without the use of props, costumes, or musical accompaniment. To adjudicate this competition, the slam organizers find 5 random individuals in the audience to be the judges.
How do you form a team of poets?
However you can! Whether you run a dedicated poetry or creative writing club at your school, or you simply gather up students who you know enjoy writing and/or performance, all you need is a minimum of 3 students (up to a maximum of 6) who are committed to participating in the Hullabaloo slam events to have a team. Some schools even register more than one team, if the interest levels hold.
My students don’t write “slam poetry,” so they can’t participate, right?
Wrong! We like to say, “There’s no such thing as slam poetry, only poetry slam.” Any and all styles of poetic voice are welcome at Hullabaloo!
How many poems does a student need to participate on the team?
The number of poems a student needs depends on the number of poets on a team. Every team member MUST perform at least one individual poem during the preliminary bouts, no poet can perform two individual poems during the same bout, and participating poets may NOT repeat a poem in the competition at any point. If you have a team of 3 poets, then each student will need two poems for preliminary bouts. If you have a team of 6 poets, each student only needs one poem for preliminary bouts.
What is a team poem?
At Hullabaloo, we define a team poem – also known as a “group piece” or “team piece” – as a poem with two or more principal speakers. A team piece can be an original composition with more than one writer, or a single student’s poem arranged for multiple speakers.
How do we determine if someone qualifies as a “principal” speaker?
There’s no easy answer to this: our team won’t be scrutinizing word counts or anything to determine the percentage of a poem required to be considered principal.
In essence, we want to encourage teams to take a thoughtful approach to how multiple voices/bodies on stage can enhance or add layers to a poem, and discourage them from having a solo poet share a poem while their teammates simply create a soundscape or do a dance routine behind them simply so they can call it a “team piece.” (We love a good soundscape or dance routine, so don’t shy away from these – just make sure they’re supporting at least two principal speakers!)
I have more questions, but they’re not listed here. What can I do with all these questions?
Yay! We’re happy to answer!
If you want more information, you can contact the Youth Coordinator at wordplay@vancouverpoetryhouse.com. And who knows? Maybe your question will be added to these ones for next time!