World poetry slam champion Harry Baker is heading to Darlington in early June to celebrate friendship, postcodes and wellies.

Harry Baker has had something of a meteoric rise, continually going viral for his poetry videos which mix heartfelt emotions and humour in just the right measures. His last tour, 2024’s ‘Wonderful’, sold out in advance and this year he’s back with ‘Wonderful 2.0’ – a show that will contain a mixture of everyone’s favourite poems as well as brand new material, celebrating what a thing it is to live a life. Baker: “From the vulnerability of sharing my own personal struggles with trying to conceive a baby to the power of making a list of requests in advance of what I would like to happen when I die (an obnoxious amount of sunflowers and negronis all round please), or even just a stupid (yet subversive?) poem about how great my knees are, there is a playfulness and poignancy that has changed the way others look at the world too. I have been performing for 15 years now and last year’s tour was my favourite by far, because of the openness audiences were willing to bring and share in, so that we could all have a cry and a laugh and go away feeling slightly more connected to one another and the world, and I am so excited for a chance to do this all over again.”

Harry Baker, Friday 6 June, The Forum, Darlington, 7pm, £15, theforumonline.co.uk