Scottish International Storytelling Festival

Elegies

* Elegies is the first dance adaptation for the screen and stage of Hamish Henderson’s series of poems Elegies for the Dead in Cyrenaica, specifically curated to premiere as part of the 34th edition of the Scottish International Storytelling Festival at Edinburgh’s Scottish Storytelling Centre on 11 November 2023 and available to tour thereafter. * … Continued

Read

SISF 2020 – Charting new waters with CalMac Ferries

We are delighted to announce a new partnership with Caledonian MacBrayne Hebridean and Clyde Ferries. The three-year support of the festival starts with the Year of Scotland’s Coasts and Waters and continues until the 2022 festival, which will take place in the Year of Scotland’s Stories. Aligned with this year’s festival theme, In the Flow, … Continued

Read

SISF 2019: Q&A with Louise Profeit-LeBlanc

Tell us an interesting feature of traditional storytelling in your country. Indigenous storytelling is very diverse and is only in the last 20 years beginning to make a comeback with many of the younger generation discovering their own through knowing the ancient stories. How did you become a storyteller? My grandmother was a great teller, … Continued

Read

SISF 2019: Q&A with Mimesis Heidi Dahlsveen

Tell us an interesting feature of traditional storytelling in your country. Troll is an important part of the traditional stories told, and there are some stories all children grows up with. In Norway, we are so lucky to have the Cultural Rucksack Programme. The Cultural Rucksack programme is part of the government’s cultural policy. It … Continued

Read

SISF 2019: Q&A with Margaret Grenier

Tell us an interesting feature of traditional storytelling in your country. Storytelling of our oral histories has been carried through song and dance for the Indigenous people of the Northwest Coast of Canada for thousands of years. Our word for oral history translates to coming from the ice, meaning that our stories go back to … Continued

Read

SISF 2019: Q&A with Michael Williams

Tell us an interesting feature of traditional storytelling in your country.  Traditional storytelling in Canada consists of different strands reaching back to Indigenous storytelling traditions, European traditions, and other immigrant and local traditions. I grew up in a multi-cultural neighbourhood in Hamilton, Ontario, where the city’s steel mills attracted families from around the world. As … Continued

Read

SISF 2019: Q&A with Dawne McFarlane

Tell us an interesting feature of traditional storytelling in your country. I live in the city of Toronto, one of the greatest crossroads cities in the world. It’s in the traditional territory of the Haudenosaunee people, the First People to live here before others came. The Toronto Storytelling Festival, which began in 1978, has become … Continued

Read

Go Beyond Words at the Scottish International Storytelling Festival this October

There is no greater pleasure than the power of traditional storytelling taking listeners on a journey of the imagination. The 31st Scottish International Storytelling Festival features 60 events in Edinburgh and 22 throughout Scotland, with 20 international guests joining 60 Scottish artists to share old traditions and new connections, showcasing how music, dance and story communicate shared experiences that are ‘Beyond Words’. There … Continued

Read

SISF Director at the Toronto Storytelling Festival

‘Canada-Scotland: Coast to Coast’ is the International Exchange for this year’s Scottish International Storytelling Festival (18-31 October). The first leg has just ended with a tour in Canada by Scottish storytellers Jess Smith and Seoras Macpherson, which began at the Toronto International Storytelling Festival where Festival Director, Donald Smith, was also on hand to meet … Continued

Read

Coast to Coast: SISF Celebrates Cultural Links with Canada

The 2019 Scottish International Storytelling Festival – Beyond Words – will have a special focus on Canada, showcasing new creative work developed by Scottish and Canadian artists. This international project to develop new collaborations between Scotland and Canada has been awarded £80,000 through Festival Expo funding, which is supported by the Scottish Government through Creative … Continued

Read
Older news »