Phrased & Confused is taking to the road again, this time headed for Leicester’s Summer Sundae Weekender, where we’ll be setting up home in the Phrased & Confused festival tent between 8th and 10th August.

Over three hopefully sunny days, we’ll be serving up hefty dollops of wordy gorgeousness – as songs, poems, readings, conversations and whatever else you want to call it. Our mission? To showcase some of the UK’s finest songwriters and poets and to introduce SSW audiences to some new artists who they’ll hopefully go on to treasure and tell the world about… Oh, and to try out our ideas for poetry bingo.

So what moments of lyrical wonder do we have in store? Well, we’re very excited to have Kenny Anderson (of King Creosote) and Emma Pollock (ex-Delgados) popping over for a set on Friday afternoon, and that Leaf’s brightest new signing, Essie Jain has crossed the Atlantic to have her Phrased & Confused moment on Saturday. We reckon our stage might be the only one at SSW to feature a musical saw too, thanks to Orphans and Vandals, who’ll be performing on Saturday too. Also up on Saturday, Joolz Denby and Death by Rock’n’Roll.

The Oulipo Poets promise to contribute further to our claim to be the quirkiest stage at SSW; one part lecture, one part multimedia performance, and with a hefty dose of cutting-edge satire, they’ll be performing poetry that uses only one vowel. Yes, that’s right, just the one vowel. The brilliant Dockers MC will be dropping by to deliver a few of her brilliantly observed monologues, based on razor sharp observations about human life. Steve Carroll, Ivory Fishbone and Sureshot from Leicester’s WORD Collective pick up the word baton on Sunday afternoon, while Benin City, one of the freshest, biggest sounds on the scene, power our final Phrased and Confused moments on Sunday – expect lyrical dexterity, good time samples and some big, big tunes. All this, plus something totally unexpected from Stuart Silver and his Ukulele Orchestra.

We’re also pretty chuffed to have been able to commission four artists to write new pieces especially for us (thank you Arts Council England for all your support!). Jean Binta Breeze, one of the world’s foremost female poets, tells tales of encounters – some real and some imagined – with reggae greats such as Bob Marley, Desmond Dekker and Toots and the Maytals, in Tongue Your Funky Rhythms in My Ear. Mark Grist and MC Mixy will be premiering their Dead Poets show, a series of character-based sketches which plays with the stereotypes that surround poetry and MCing and takes in Mixy’s first in-school encounters with the great poets and rules of poetry and Mark’s musings on a love poem from Sir Walter to Amy Winehouse. Another duo, this time poet Aoife Mannix and musician Janie Armour will be performing Different Words for Snow, which fuses live voice and accordion with pre-recorded text, piano, mandolin and percussion and other samples, and makes a few nods to shared heroes such as Patti Smith, John Cooper Clarke, Linton Kwesi Johnson and Tom Waits. And finally, poet Andy Craven-Griffiths, whose piece sees him rhyming and – get this – drumming, to tell a modern day everyman story of a young man’s unrequited love for a seemingly perfect woman.

And that’s not all…We’ve also got the What’s Your Words Worth? quiz, a rip-off/cum homage to all your favourite quizzes (I’ll name that poem in one, anyone?!), Poetry Bingo (versey, versey!); the Phrased & Confused pub quiz (can we get those Phrased & Confused beer mats ready in time?); our very own Phrased & Confused Poetry Collection, a body of work created by audiences and artists alike, using words donated by SSW crowds, and the anarchic Never Mind The Main Stage slot, where our poets go head to head with mainstager, José Gonzales.

Click here for a full programme listing.

Please note, all running times are subject to change. See the Phrased & Confused blackboard in the tent each day for final running times.