The Festival Button

If you are looking for the button that will get you in to all the Mass Poetry Festival events – Thursday through Saturday – you have several choices. Buttons will go for a donation of $10 for adults and $5 for seniors and students. Of course we encourage those who can to make a larger donation to help us meet the costs of the festival.

You can beat the line at the festival itself by making a donation on line now.   If you donate on line, your name will be placed on a list and you’ll be given a button as you check in either at the Salem Old Town Hall or the Visitor’s Center.

You can also obtain a button at any of the following businesses: 

In Salem

  • The Roost, 40 Front Street
  • Salemdipity, 86 Wharf Street on Pickering Wharf
  • Salem Witch Museum, 19 ½ Washington Square North
  • Signatures Apparel, 181 Essex Street (on the Pedestrian Mall)
  • Salem Trolley Depot “191 Essex Street (on the Pedestrian Mall)
  • Gulu Gulu cafe, 247 Essex Street 

In Marblehead

  • Spirit of ’76 Bookstore, 107 Pleasant Street

In Cambridge

  • Harvard Bookstore, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue
  • Porter Square Books, 25 White Street
  • Rodney’s Bookstore, 698 Massachusetts Avenue

In Brookline
  • Brookline Booksmith, 279 Harvard Street

In Concord
  • Concord Bookshop, 65 Main Street

In Newton
  • Newtonville Books, 296 Walnut Street


You’ll be able to purchase a festival button at the the Old Town Hall and at the Visitor’s Center.

Workshop Admission

For workshops we are requiring that people pre-register. Everyone attending will need a button of course. We want to keep the workshops small so that each participant gets the most out of each session. As you can see on the home page of the festival schedule, you can sign in and create account. To open an account you will have to submit your actual email address. However if you want to use a nom de' plume for your festival experience you can do that -- but we do you need to pre-register your actual email.  Then as you visit the various program listings if you click the + sign next to one you are automatically registering for it. You can create a total festival schedule for all events and print it out as your personal guide to the festival. You can also share that with other friends who register and can see your schedule so that they can arrange to meet you at specific events or arrange to grab a coffee or a meal in any one of the large number of restaurants and cafes within 3 minutes of our venues. Social media comes to the poetry festival!