As November closes over us and the air is heavy with fall, St. John’s will once again be filled with the power and wonder of stories. The St. John's Storytelling Festival, now the largest storytelling festival in Canada east of Montreal, runs from November 1st to 5th. We are delighted to be welcoming performers from Newfoundland & Labrador, British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec, Ireland and Scotland.

Margaret Bennett will be traveling with the kind support of the Scottish Arts Council. Renowned for her knowledge of Scottish folklore, Margaret will be performing tales traditional to Scotland, as well as stories found in the Codroy Valley. She takes to our stage for our Friday night concert and on Sunday afternoon. The delightful Anne Farrell comes to us from Ireland, with the generous aid of the Irish-Newfoundland Partnership. Anne will be offering a workshop on externalizing the spirit of story, as well as performing Saturday morning and Sunday evening.

Storyteller and banjo-player Lorne Brown (of Ontario) will be on hand with recitations and a few riffs, Friday evening and Saturday afternoon. From Quebec comes Judith Poirer, who, along with Norma Cameron (of B.C. and Scotland) and our own Andy Jones, will offer a night of Jack tales on Saturday evening. Hosted by Chris Brookes, this will be a must-see evening, and a perfect prelude to our late night event at the Newman Vaults—ghost stories and murder ballads performed by Dale Jarvis and Gerard & Tobias Pearson.

Newfoundland musical legend Kelly Russell will kick off the Festival; Kelly may be best known as a multi-instrumentalist of extraordinary ability, but he is also an accomplished storyteller and a fine hand at recitations. He’ll offer an evening of tunes and tales at Folk Night, and will host our first-ever tall tale competition. Thursday, he’ll be joined by celebrity judges—Anne Budgell, Peg Norman and Pete Soucy—for what will no doubt be a monumental evening of wit and hilarity, the most truth-stretching-est and absurd, the most tallest night of tales St. John’s has ever seen or ever will see. Tales so tall, they’ll reach round the moon and back again. For a hundred bucks, they gotta be that tall.

And there’s more! Stories and songs from such much-loved favourites as Jim Payne, Linda Slade Byrne and Anita Best, who’ll be part of a special sea session at the Rooms; performances from fine tellers Lewis Cranford and Gary Green, and the St. John’s Storytelling Circle’s mistress of recitations, Margaret Hitchens. A workshop on incorporating visualization in your storytelling from Norma Cameron. Stories of magic, mystery, murder and mayhem. There are even rumours of giant squid sightings!

We’re especially pleased to welcome Tommy Oliver, of Gull Island, to town; Tommy has been much in demand in his own neighbourhood for his wonderful recitations, but he has never before performed in St. John’s. He’ll be delighting us with his recitations on Saturday afternoon and at our final, Sunday night concert.

Most events at the Festival have a modest admission fee, but there will be free family events too. Saturday morning, thanks to the City of St. John’s Cultural Capitals funding, we’re offering a morning of stories with Judith Poirer and Anne Farrell, hosted by emerging storyteller Sara Meyer. And Sunday morning, thanks to the Parent-Child Mother Goose Program and the Grocery Industry Foundation, we’ll have a storytelling session and workshop for infants, parents and care-givers, featuring Tina Fisher and Elizabeth Zedel and hosted by Lori Fritz.

More information about any or all of these events can be found here. Workshops will be held Saturday and Sunday afternoons; please pre-register with the SJFAC. Thanks, too, to the Canada Council and the Government of Newfoundland & Labrador for generous support. Thanks, too, the eager volunteers of the organizing committee: Anita Best, Chris Brookes, Sarah Cahill, Mary Fearon and Lori Fritz.

The 3rd Annual St. John’s Storytelling Festival is a downtown festival. Join us at the Masonic Temple, the Crow’s Nest, the Ship Pub, the Newman Vaults, and the Rooms for this celebration of the power of stories and the joy of the spoken word.

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