The Scottish International Storytelling Festival
When: 18th – 31st October 2018
Where: At venues across Scotland
£: Ticket prices vary, depending on the event. Some events are free
What it is?
This year’s Scottish International Storytelling Festival will take place from Thursday 18th to Wednesday 31st October and will look to the future of storytelling in Scotland. The festival aims to nurture local roots, reach out globally, and celebrate Celtic traditions shared by Scotland and Ireland.
Taking place each year as the dark nights close in, the festival reflects how communities would gather to entertain each other as the days got shorter and nights grew longer. The 2018 festival will open in the Great Hall of Stirling Castle on Thursday 18th October, heralding a wave of events across Scotland and a programme of events in the capital city from Friday 19th October.
Visitors are invited to discover the magic of the storytelling tradition with 66 events in Edinburgh and a further 27 throughout Scotland; from conferences and taster sessions, to walking tours and informal family gatherings. In addition, the festival’s Local Campaign will support 100 events in schools and community centres across the country, with the aim of enriching local neighbourhoods through storytelling.
The Armagh Rhymers will be at this year’s festival
Festival on Tour events will be held throughout Scotland, from Orkney to Dumfries & Galloway, Bute to Fife. This year, 96 Scottish storytellers will be taking part, along with 18 global guests from Ireland, France, Wales, Iceland, India, Belgium, Jordan and Sierra Leone.
With the support of the Scottish Government’s Festival Expo Fund, SISF will showcase Celtic riches – passed on through story, song and music. The rise of Fionn, the mysterious passion of Sabha, the birth of Ossian as a deer-child, the loves of Diarmaid, the tragic hunting of the Boar that leads to his death, the departure of Ossian, and finally his return from the land of the ever living, offer a shared Celtic epic, that long predates James MacPherson’s romantic poems.
SISF aims to reclaim these Celtic traditions for Scottish culture, and simultaneously emphasise the solidarity with Ireland ,as Brexit threatens the country’s hard-won peace process.
Among the Irish visitors this year are The Armagh Rhymers, the legendary Eddie Lenihan from Co. Clare, and singer, storyteller, actress and songwriter Helena Byrne.
More info: www.sisf.org.uk
Leave a comment