Open Mic

Our monthly open mic evenings continue with an in-person Open Mic for May in central Kirkcaldy. As usual, everyone is welcome, from seasoned performers to first-timers.

There is a small admission charge to cover the cost of hiring the hall (but it remains free for members - you can join here: https://www.fifewrites.org.uk/membership). You don't need to get your ticket in advance as you can pay at the door (or quote your membership number and name for a free ticket).

Open Mic Attendance

At Fife Writes we love our open mic nights and we want everyone attending to be given the chance to read their work aloud. If you haven’t attended before and would like to, please come along, you'll be made most welcome.

What to expect at an open mic night:

It’s a fun and engaging way to hear your fellow members' work. You’ll hear anything from poetry, satire, short stories and flash fiction pieces, even the odd play! There are no set themes and we often hear a swear word or two, we only ask that your material is not sexist, racist or overly offensive.

Each participant is given 5 minutes and we sometimes have to use a timer to ensure everyone sticks to that as close as possible. If the bell rings, your 5 minutes is up. We don’t mind if you finish your sentence but please don’t go on and continue to read another paragraph (unless you really are at the very end!). There may be time after everyone has had a chance to say their piece for you to come back, but it’s only fair that everyone who wants to read get’s an equal chance.

Hopefully you’ll leave the event inspired by what you hear and go away and write more to bring back next time.

What the Open Mic Host hopes for:

That you come prepared! Please practise the piece you plan to read and make sure it’s not longer than 5 minutes. That’s usually a couple of poems or around 750 words of prose. If you are reading from a longer piece of work please select an extract of not more than 750 words.

You can give a short intro to your piece of work but remember that you have 5 minutes in total, including your intro, so you have less time for your work. You want to ensure it's the piece you are reading that gets the limelight and not your introduction to it.

Please don’t take the 5 minute timer going off personally, there has to be a cut off so everyone gets a chance to perform. If you prepare in advance we hopefully shouldn’t need to cut you off in full flow!