Inside Sweepstakes Casino Fast Withdrawal: From Signup to First Cashout

After two decades helping APAC operators tighten payments rails and onboarding flows, I keep circling back to the same quiet metric: how quickly a player moves from signup to first cashable balance. Sweepstakes casino fast withdrawal products are built around that pressure point, and they’re a defo different beast from your standard real-money site. If you’re weighing new platforms like lucky dream against slower legacy books, here’s what the first session actually looks like when speed sits at the centre of the design – Adelaide arvos, AEST evenings, the lot.

Signup and Identity Verification at Sweepstakes Casinos Built for Speed

Sign-up itself takes the kind of effort you’d expect from a fintech onboarding screen: email, password, an Australian mobile number, and confirmation of being over 18. Because sweepstakes casinos run on a dual-currency model – Gold Coins (GC) for standard play and Sweeps Coins (SC) that convert to withdrawable balance – eligibility sits in a slightly different box than a licensed wagering product does here. Operators still enforce state-based eligibility and exclude anyone under 18, but the marketing mechanic (free SC entries, mail-in alternatives, promotional giveaways) keeps the model on the right side of compliance in most jurisdictions. From my APAC operator days, I reckon this is where the dual-currency setup earns its keep.

KYC kicks in at the first redemption, not at signup. You’ll upload a government photo ID, snap a selfie, and confirm a residential address – Adelaide postcodes usually clear verification in under twenty minutes when documents line up. Some operators run a quick live-check on your ID, others lean on automated scanning. The pattern I’ve watched mature across operator-scale rollouts in Sydney and Melbourne is straightforward: faster KYC directly correlates with faster first cashout. Ruby Evans, Payments Strategy Director at Tasman Gaming Partners, put it bluntly: “If verification queues aren’t staffed seven days a week in AEST, your redemption SLA is fiction.”

First Deposit, Bonus Activation, and the Sweepstakes Model

The first deposit at a sweepstakes casino isn’t a deposit in the wagering sense – it’s a Gold Coins purchase. Sweeps Coins arrive as a promotional bonus attached to the bundle, usually at 1 SC bonus per 10 GC purchased, with starter packs starting around A$5 and scaling into A$300 tiers. That SC bonus carries real withdrawal potential, and typically lands in your balance the moment the purchase clears. Welcome offers stack on top: roughly 10 SC on signup (no purchase needed), plus a first-purchase match that doubles the GC bundle for new accounts. Activation is light – opt-in is a single tick, no bonus codes to chase.

Once the bundle clears, you’re into the games lobby. Provider rosters lean on studios like ReelFortune Studios and Cascade Gaming for the slot-heavy catalogue, with a smaller table-games and live-dealer selection underneath. Game weighting works the same way it does at any operator: SC play on slots contributes 100% to redemption eligibility, table games 20-50%. The mechanics of weighting outcomes across the wagering industry are well-documented, and the team behind the Canberra NMRC findings on consumer protection metrics has produced useful reference work. From a payments-strategy lens, no worries – there’s no wagering requirement stacked on the SC bonus itself, which is what defo separates this category from a traditional matched-deposit offer.

First Play and How Fast Withdrawal Actually Plays Out

First-play sessions usually last an hour or two – enough time to clear most of the SC bonus through slots and confirm the platform holds up under extended use. Mobile browser is the default for most players; the iOS and Android apps mirror the desktop lobby but tend to drop live-dealer tables to keep load times tight. Support runs 24/7 chat with an AEST-staffed front line – the difference between a five-minute resolution and a ticket sitting overnight.

When redemption kicks in, timing varies by method. Crypto (BTC, USDT, ETH) and e-wallet redemptions clear in one to two hours once the SC threshold is met; bank transfers take one to three business days. From my APAC operator days, I reckon the practical ceiling for “fast” sits around two hours – beyond that, and marketing runs ahead of the payments team’s capacity. Legacy bookmakers still quote three to five business days for the same rails.

For Adelaide players, AEST payout windows line up with arvo sessions, and bigger operators now staff AWST teams to bridge the three-hour gap with US-based partners. Ruby Evans, Payments Strategy Director at Tasman Gaming Partners, makes a practical point: “Players on the east coast want money in their bank before bedtime. Operators that miss that window learn fast.”

Quick Answers Before You Sign Up

How long does sweepstakes casino fast withdrawal actually take on the first cashout?

First cashout typically lands in one to two hours on crypto and e-wallet rails once KYC is approved. Bank transfers run one to three business days. The wait feels shorter when signup, KYC, and the first SC play happen in the same session, which is the pattern operators are optimising for.

Do I need to verify before I can play, or only at redemption?

You can play immediately after signup, but full KYC (government photo ID, selfie, address confirmation) only kicks in at the first redemption. Adelaide players usually clear verification inside twenty minutes. Trying to game your way to a withdrawal without verification won’t work – no operator bypasses that step, and you shouldn’t try.

What’s the minimum SC balance needed to redeem, and can I mix payment methods?

The minimum redemption is 50 SC, roughly A$50 in equivalent value. You can split redemptions across methods – crypto for the urgent half, e-wallet for the rest – though most players stick to one rail. For payout-speed benchmarks outside sweepstakes, the racing payout analysis from the greyhound community offers useful external context.

bet races free entry and the Modern Lobby

The modern Australian betting floor looks nothing like the smoke-filled rooms of the past, and that shift matters when you compare platforms. Back in the day, an Olympic sprinter lived by the clock and the starting blocks; today, a well-run lobby runs on the same discipline, where every category sits exactly where a sharp player expects it. That same precision shows up when you weigh up bet races free entry against the broader market. I have spent years watching exchange APIs and automated sports workflows, and the difference between a cluttered catalogue and a curated one is the difference between noise and signal. You can start your assessment at vegasherowin.net to see how a focused operator presents its lobby before you commit time to a registration.

Game Catalog Organisation and Discovery

A lobby is only as good as the path a player takes through it, and that path needs to be obvious from the first click. The strongest catalogues separate slots, table games, and live content into distinct zones rather than dumping every title into one long scroll. Providers should be visible, not hidden behind a generic label, because a regular who prefers a specific studio’s RNG or live dealer setup needs to find it without guessing. Search functions need to handle more than a title match; filters for volatility, number of reels, and even minimum stake separate a usable lobby from a warehouse. When you are comparing bet races free entry against similar platforms, watch how the discovery tools behave on a busy arvo when the network is carrying other traffic. A lobby that stays responsive under load tells you more about the operator’s infrastructure than any marketing line. The smallest legal casinos can operate with only a handful of machines, which is a useful reminder that a tight, well-labelled catalogue often beats a sprawling one where half the titles are buried on page three. Gamblinghood

Slots, Tables, and Live Content Balance

Balance across game types is where an operator’s real curation shows up, because a lobby that leans too hard in one direction alienates the players who want variety. Slots should span a sensible range of volatility and theme, but the table and live sections need equal care, not a token few titles parked at the bottom. Live dealer rooms run on timing and camera quality, and the difference between a smooth live shoe and a laggy one is usually the operator’s streaming setup rather than the game itself. When I have built automated workflows around sports and prediction markets, the lesson was always the same: the interface matters as much as the underlying odds, because a delayed feed or a poorly sorted table list costs attention before it costs money. A platform that treats its live and table content as an afterthought will show it in the lobby layout, the update frequency, and the way the titles are grouped. If the slot floor is strong but the live section feels like a placeholder, that is a real condition to weigh, not a minor detail.

Bonus Mechanics and Free Entry Conditions

Free entry offers and entry-level bonuses need to be read as mechanics, not as headlines, because the terms shape how useful they actually are. Wagering requirements, game weightings, and time limits all change the practical value of a promotion, and a player who skips those details is usually the one who wonders why a balance did not convert the way they expected. A decent operator states the conditions plainly, including which games count fully and which ones contribute only a fraction. The key is whether the offer is designed to let you test the lobby and a few titles, or whether it is built to lock you into a narrow path before you have seen the wider floor. When you are looking at bet races free entry, compare the bonus terms with the rest of the lobby rather than treating the promotion as a separate product. A fair entry offer should match the catalogue, not fight against it, and that alignment is one of the clearest signs of how seriously an operator takes its regulars. For a broader read on how these offers fit into the wider market, it helps to cross-check with gamblinghood.com before you settle on a platform.

Mobile Play, Payments, and Support Realities

Mobile performance is where many lobbies meet the player in practice, and that meeting needs to be clean across registration, banking, and support. A registration flow that asks for the right details once, rather than dragging out every step, keeps the experience measured rather than frustrating. Payments should be presented in a currency that matches the audience, with deposit and withdrawal paths that are described plainly rather than buried in fine print. Support needs to be reachable when a deposit stalls or a game does not load, not just when a promotion ends. I have seen automated sports workflows fail at the human handoff, and the same principle applies here: a platform can run smoothly most of the time, but the test is what happens when something goes wrong in the middle of a session. A lobby that handles mobile play, payments, and support as one connected system tends to hold its players longer than one that treats each as a separate department.

  • Check that the lobby separates slots, tables, and live content into distinct sections rather than one endless list.
  • Confirm that search and filters handle volatility, provider, and stake range, not just a game name.
  • Read the free entry or bonus terms for game weighting, wagering, and time limits before you use them.
  • Test mobile registration and payment screens on a phone, not just a desktop, before you commit.
  • Verify that support is reachable through a clear channel and that the response addresses the actual issue. vegasherowin.net

The right lobby is the one that keeps its catalogue organised, its terms readable, and its live and table content treated with the same care as its slots. bet races free entry can be a sensible starting point when the operator presents its games clearly and the entry offer matches the rest of the floor. If the lobby is tidy, the mobile flow is steady, and the support responds properly, you have a platform worth spending time on rather than one you rush past.

How Real Players Should Assess New Pokies With Bonus Game

Australian players have more choice than ever when it comes to fresh pokies with bonus features, but the marketing noise around new releases makes it tricky to separate genuine quality from glossy packaging. After fifteen years running operator partnerships across European and Asia-Pacific markets, I’ve learned the questions worth asking before depositing a cent. This guide is built around those questions, with a particular eye on the trust, support, and responsible-play controls that matter most when real money is on the line.

Are the Licensing and Safety Foundations Genuine?

A pokies site can dress up a bonus game with cinematic graphics and still cut corners on the basics that protect your bankroll. Start with the licence. International operators serving Australian customers typically run under Curaçao or Anjouan oversight, and that’s the regulatory reality you should accept rather than ignore. What matters is whether the licence number is verifiable on the regulator’s public register.

Security deserves the same scepticism. Reputable rooms like https://mega-moolah-jackpot-au.com/ use TLS 1.3 encryption on every page and publish RNG certification, usually from iTech Labs, eCOGRA, or GLI, in the footer. If you can’t find either within a minute of looking, treat that as a signal. Independent RTP testing and game-by-game volatility disclosure are the next things to verify.

Responsible-play tools are where I push hardest, having watched teams across Sydney and APAC bury these controls in sub-menus for years. A serious operator exposes deposit limits, loss caps, session reminders, and self-exclusion directly inside the account dashboard. In Australia, Gambling Help Online can be reached on 1800 858 858, and any platform worth your time will link that number prominently. Cameron Edwards of the Capital Territory Gaming Forum put it directly: “Hide the responsible-play controls and you lose the player who would have stayed.”

Decoding New Pokies With Bonus Game Mechanics

Most modern titles with bonus game features lean on three structural patterns, and understanding them is the difference between a fun session and a frustrating one. Each pattern interacts differently with volatility, RTP, and the size of your typical bet. Knowing which type matches your habits is, frankly, more useful than chasing the biggest advertised jackpot figure.

Free Spins and Multiplier Trails

The classic is the free spins round with a progressive multiplier that climbs on each consecutive win. Hacksaw Gaming and Pragmatic Play release these almost monthly, and the format works because players feel momentum building with every cascade. The catch: base games often feel barren because the developer is funding the feature with low-frequency, high-variance payouts. Hit frequency on these titles can drop below 15%, which means long quiet stretches punctuated by loud bonus rounds. If your session bankroll is thin, you’ll burn through it waiting for the trigger. Set a session cap in the cashier before you start and respect it.

Pick-Me and Hold-and-Win Features

These tend to deliver smaller, more frequent rewards. A hold-and-win bonus locks coin symbols in place while respins reset on each new coin, with the goal of filling the grid. The variance is lower than free spins rounds, so bankrolls stretch further and you’ll see bonus rounds trigger more often, sometimes every 30 to 50 spins on high-volatility titles. Pragmatic Play’s coin-style releases and BGaming’s hold-and-spin games are typical examples worth comparing side by side. They’re a better fit if you reckon on a longer arvo session rather than chasing a single feature hit.

Walking Wilds and Multi-Level Bonus Games

These are the cinematic features Nolimit City and ELK Studios have popularised. Walking wilds move across reels adding wins, while multi-level bonuses ladder through stages with increasing prizes. Each stage typically unlocks new mechanics, including extra wilds, sticky symbols, and jackpot picks, which is why the feature feels closer to a mini-game than a slot round. Drifting is the opposite, with odds lengthening as support fades, but in bonus ladders the opposite usually holds: each level you clear raises the expected return on the next stage. Read the paytable carefully; the disclosed feature frequency matters more than the headline max win.

Does the Casino Match Your Real-Life Rhythm?

A pokies site that looks polished but doesn’t fit your schedule will quietly cost you. Consider the time-zone logistics: Perth players on AWST run three hours behind AEST, which shifts when bonus drops and tournament start windows fire. Sydney players usually find AEST works in their favour, but always confirm whether leaderboards reset at midnight AEST or your local clock. Picture a Perth tradie claiming a Tuesday reload at 5 pm AWST only to find it expired at midnight AEST three hours earlier; that reload was real money left on the table.

Support hours matter too. 24/7 live chat is the baseline any mature operation should meet; anything less and you’re gambling on whether someone will reply when your withdrawal stalls at 2 am AEDT. Look for a cashier that processes withdrawals in AUD, confirm registration verifies identity upfront rather than after first deposit, and check whether the loyalty programme tracks tier status per session.

Regional outlets running gambling-harm stories, including Bendigo Advertiser coverage in country Victoria, set a benchmark, since a serious room should fund those safer-gambling messages itself rather than leave the work to local press. The operator that handles time zones, currency, and community responsibility quietly is the one that earns long-term trust.

The Verdict

New pokies with bonus game features deserve genuine excitement, but that excitement should arrive after the boring checks, not before them. Verify the licence on a public register, find the responsible-play controls before you deposit, read the paytable rather than the marketing, and confirm the support hours cover your timezone. Get those right and the bonus rounds will still be there once the fundamentals are sorted.

From Cowboys to Astronauts – Art exhibition from waste materials.

“I’ve often heard people say: ‘I wonder what it would feel like to be on board a spaceship,’ and the answer is very simple. What does it feel like? That’s all we have ever experienced. We are all astronauts on a little spaceship called Earth.” – R. Buckminster Fuller

I am taking part in an art exhibition in Exeter, entitled From Cowboys to Astronauts. It is a very special exhibition, because all of the work is made from waste materials.

We, artists from Devon, are presenting objects, installations, visual art etc. made from waste. The meaning of it is to promote the concept of a circular economy – a regenerative economic system where materials and energy from products are recovered and put back into the system instead of simply being disposed of.

The initiative for this exhibition came from the Centre for Alternative Materials and Remanufacturing Technologies (CALMARE), a business technology centre, based at the University of Exeter and part funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). The waste materials used in the exhibition have been sourced from the University itself, from the private ‘collections’ of artists and from other locations around Devon, including Exeter and Plymouth Scrapstores, Peninsula Waste Savers in Okehampton and the Devon County Council landfill sites managed by SITA.

Artists, as innovators with the ability to look at the materials from a different point of view and see issues with a touch of imagination, have a valuable role to play in turning waste products into objects of value. It could be for exemple an aesthetical, practical or conceptual value. The hope is that this can raise awareness and be an effective education tool for viewing these products in a new way.

On Saturday 2nd May, there was a Family Day and a workshop for kids, where the children got the chance to use recycled materials and produce some very interesting objects. All the work made by the children can be seen at the exhibition space.

The next ‘Meet the Artist day’ will be on Saturday 16th May. It will give the public an opportunity to talk to some of the exhibiting artists and find out more about their work.

Entry to the exhibition is free, and it is open to the public from Monday to Saturday, excluding bank holidays, until the final Friday, May 22nd 2015.

The exhibition takes place in Exeter, at The Enviro Hub, Devon Contract Waste – Marsh Barton Road Exeter, EX2 8NU.

A very unusual place and very unusual exhibition. I hope to see you there.

 

Much Ado About How To Become A Famous Artist

“Much Ado About How to Become a Famous Artist” is my first animation movie. I wrote the whole script and produced the animation in collaboration with Nikolaus Cieslinski. The movie was made in cooperation with the VisionLore Group. They are a Polish animation company who designed the visual characters.

It is a humorous view of the modern contemporary art scene in the 21st century. It is based on my experiences as a female fine artist, a painter. I still think that mastery, technique and talent are more important than the contemporary concept that “expressing yourself” is all that counts. Everybody can express their own feelings in their own particular way. You don’t have to be a “fine artist”, you don’t have to have any “technique”, following that principle everyone is an artist as long as they “express themselves”. All that is required in this brave new world is a “concept”. But is that ART? I don’t want art to be elitist, but art should be about truth, beauty and the sacred. And yes, there are some objective criteria for these categories!

Here is my own conception of the modern art world, in moving pictures:

Much Ado About How To Become A Famous Artist from Kasia Turajczyk on Vimeo.

Living The Question – “Are You Worried About the Arctic Sea Ice?”

Having bought a pair of tickets to this year’s TEDxExeter the day they went on sale I finally got around to working out what to expect there the day before the event.  On opening their web site on April 11th I discovered that the theme for the 2013 event was “Living the Questions“, and the most recent blog post was entitled “If you could ask a stranger any question, what would it be?”, which suggested that:

The English talk about the weather because we find the exchange of personal information too uncomfortable.

which led the TEDxExeter “Storyteller” to ask the question

I wonder whether it would be possible to overcome those inhibitions at TEDxExeter? We could prepare ourselves, have a question ready to ask and be open to the questions others ask in return.

As regular readers of the “Implementing Imagination” blog will know, despite being born and bred in England I have no qualms about approaching total strangers and asking them about contemporary art instead of the weather! I therefore instantly decided to enter into the TED spirit of things. I wandered (virtually) from the TEDxExeter blog over to Twitter in search of some immediate (albeit still virtual) interaction with some English strangers. The #TEDxExeter hashtag revealed the following “tweets” to me:

Since Damo and Boris had been kind enough to start the conversation I replied as follows:

Click the date to discover what happened next in the virtual world of the Twittersphere. To cut a long story short, I decided to ask some English strangers the question “Are you worried about the Arctic Sea Ice“, in part because it is in fact related to the English weather, but mainly because it’s a subject I think everybody should be interested in at the very least, although very few people actually seem to be!

In real life the next day Kasia and I arrived at the Northcott Theatre, and I set about asking people my question, along with trying to find the strangers I’d “met” on Twitter the evening before in order to ask them my question face to face. The people we sat down next to were certainly worried about Arctic sea ice.

At the first coffee break I discovered that I still had a few leaflets left in my backpack after a recent trip to Oslo. I took them to the TEDxExeter “Connections Stand”, where Helen assured me that she was worried about the Arctic Sea Ice too:

Helen Drever helping everyone "get involved" at TEDxExeter 2013

Helen Drever helping everyone "get involved" at TEDxExeter 2013

That being the case, it seemed like a good idea to leave a few of my pieces of paper on the connections table:

The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side, at TEDxExeter 2013

The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side, at TEDxExeter 2013

After that I also managed to put my question to a couple of the speakers from the first session. Both Peter Owen-Jones and Jonathon Porritt were very worried about the Arctic Sea Ice.

After the next session of presentations we were queuing for lunch when Damo unknowingly came up to me to ask me if I’d like to put my business card in his bucket. I discovered that his company Colour Burn was filming the event, and that he too is very worried about the Arctic sea ice.

Although I didn’t get to ask him my question in person it became obvious after lunch that at least one of the other speakers was very worried about the Arctic sea ice too. Stewart Wallis is Executive Director of the New Economics Foundation, and was the final speaker of the day. He actually showed a slide displaying the rapid decline in Arctic sea ice to the assembled crowd, a bit like this one:

The US Environmental Protection Agency map of declining Arctic sea ice

The US Environmental Protection Agency map of declining Arctic Sea Ice

Stewart also showed us all a video of the nef’s Impossible Hamster, as a partial explanation for that decline:

The commentary to the video asks another question, on Stewart’s behalf:

Why do most economists, and politicians, think that the economy can grow for ever, and ever, and ever?

In answer to that question here’s a video from another TED event. This one shows Tim Jackson in 2010 explaining that:

This is a strange rather perverse story. Let me put it this way in very simple terms. It’s a story about us people, being persuaded to spend money we don’t have, on things we don’t need to create impressions that won’t last on people we don’t care about.

By the time Stewart Wallis left the stage at the Northcott I had discovered that Clare was in fact the TEDxExeter Storyteller, and that she was sat with her laptop at the back of the Northcott Theatre. I caught up with her there after the show was over, to discover that whilst she was aware of the declining sea ice in the Arctic, she didn’t seem at first sight to be as worried about it as Damo or Stewart or I.

At the end of the day on April 12th 2013 I never did get to meet Boris in person, but at least we now have a date for TEDxExeter 2014. Perhaps then I’ll be able to ask him this question too:

Are you worried about the Arctic Sea Ice?

TEDxExeter, Rilke, Schumann and Pirates.

A few months ago Jim enlightened me about TED. Since then I have watched every now and then TED talks – videos about our planet, our lives, our future, our possibilities etc. etc. They are stories from “ordinary” people with passions, vocations and courage to be different, to be unconventional.

Yesterday I attended for the first time a TED event. It was close to home, in Exeter, TEDxExeter 2013. It was an unforgettable experience. It began with an inspired fragment from the Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke. I studied R.M.R. poetry and letters when I was in high school, and I did it thoroughly. As a young girl I was very romantic, and Rainer Maria was very dramatically an exalted and romantic poet. Here is the English translation from the Letters to a Young Poet:

I beg you, to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don’t search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.

Mad as I am I spent a few hours today reading the letters in the original versions, but I couldn’t find the fragment. Probably the English translation is very licencia poetica. Nevertheless it is wonderful to read Rilke in his own language again.

From the first till the last TED speakers, all of them, were fascinating and inspiring. The day was divided into four sections:

  • THE BIG PICTURE
  • THE POWER OF CONNECTION
  • TRANSFORMATION
  • WHAT FUTURE

The speakers were from different backgrounds and different disciplines: scientists, farmers, artists, public services, activists, pirates, entrepreneurs etc.

I was very touched by Jo Berry’s story. I found her story very moving and honest. When her father was killed in the IRA Brighton Bombing during the 1984 Tory Party Conference, Jo was thrown into a conflict she knew very little about. Since then she has visited Ireland many times and worked with victims and former combatants from all sides. In November 2000 she met Pat Magee, the man responsible for her father’s death and after that they created together The Forgiveness Project; and they become good friends.
When listening to her words :

I’m beginning to realise that no matter which side of the conflict you’re on, had we all lived each other’s lives, we could all have done what the other did

I thought to myself, maybe there is some hope for human kind.

I loved the talk by the American violinist Robert Gupta ( video only). He tells a moving story of society’s marginalized and the power of music therapy, which can succeed where conventional medicine fails. He mentioned a beautiful quote from Schumann:

Licht senden in die Tiefe des menschlichen Herzens – des Künstlers Beruf.

the English translation:

To send light into the darkness of men’s hearts – such is the duty of the artist.

Here is one of his videos

One of my favourite talks was unfortunately also only a video, but a very strong one by Allan Savory. His presentation was about how to fight desertification and reverse climate change.  When he mentions this

Burning one hectare of grassland gives off more, and more damaging, pollutants than 6,000 cars. And we are burning in Africa, every single year, more than one billion hectares

it forces you to think about us humans.

After Kester Brewin’s speech entitled “Mutiny! What Our Love of Pirates Tells Us About Renewing the Commons” I just got my own dream back again which was to become a pirate. A piglet pirate…..and here I am:

Two times during that day, yesterday, I had this wonderful opportunity to hear poems by Matt Harvey. I loved them. Such brilliant and funny poems; great sense of humour …
Matt Harvey you have got a new fan! Me.

Matt Harvey’s #REMPoem (Squared)

In my professional capacity I attended the renewable energy conference which took place alongside the Renewable Energy Marketplace exhibition organised by Regen SW last month. The venue was the Westpoint exhibition centre just outside Exeter. I was delighted to discover that in between the presentations on how to finance and deliver energy efficiency and renewable energy and the panel debate on how all the theory might actually pan out in practice, space had been made for some performance poetry!

Described in the conference programme as “the enemy of all that’s difficult and upsetting” and “Regen’s poet in residence”, Matt Harvey was a revelation, making us all laugh at his poetic explanation of the thoughts that ran through his mind(s) upon his first ever encounter with a large scale solar PV farm in “The Shock of the New“. Not content with that, Matt went on to invite us all to contribute to a crowd sourced poem about wind turbines! Those of us in the room were invited to write a line of the poem on a strip of blank white paper. Those further afield were invited to contribute a line by “Tweeting” using the #REMPoem hashtag. My own line required no thought at all, since it was already on my own mind before Matt’s invitation, and I believe I was the first to hand in my no longer plain white strip of paper to him. Matt assured me that “partial plagiarism” was perfectly acceptable in all the circumstances.

By mid afternoon Matt had assembled all the contributions (some from as far afield as Canada) into the following performance, hastily recorded on his smartphone by yours truly:

See if you can work out which line was mine?  If it’s not immediately obvious to you, here’s a big clue!

I subsequently discovered that another recording had been made of Matt’s performance, so here’s take 2. Amongst other things a not so hasty video recording of me making a hasty video recording of Matt Harvey’s #REMPoem!

Which video do you prefer, and have you worked out by now which line of the poem was mine?

The Mirror Crack’d From Side To Side

Art inspired by the disintegration of the Arctic Ice Cap

The Mirror Crack'd From Side To Side

The Mirror Crack'd From Side To Side - Jim Hunt - With apologies to Sidney Harold Meteyard

Out flew the web and floated wide
The mirror crack’d from side to side;
“The curse is come upon me,” cried
The Lady of Shalott.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson
From “The Lady of Shalott

Narcissus - "A-Team" - With apologies to Caravaggio

Looking Forward, Looking Back - "A-Team" - With apologies to Caravaggio

In the Bloodshot Eye of the Beholder - Kasia B. Turajczyk

In the Bloodshot Eye of the Beholder - Kasia B. Turajczyk