Scottish International Storytelling Festival expands to Ross-shire to include new events in Strathpeffer, Contin and Brahan

A PRESTIGIOUS storytelling festival is coming to Ross-shire for the first time later this month.

Originally based in Edinburgh, the Scottish International Storytelling Festival (SISF) will not only be welcoming in-presence audiences again this year, but it will include two events in Strathpeffer and Maryburgh as part of its largest Go Local programme to date.

On Friday, October 15, storyteller Lizzie McDougall and musician Siannie Moodie Clarsach will go on stage at the Highland Museum of Childhood with “Stories, Tunes & Songs of a Highland Childhood", in which they share a treasure trove of highland tradition: a night of giant stories, fairy stories, mystery and history tales, tunes, songs, folklore, riddles and rhymes.

Lizzie McDougall will be performing again on Saturday, October 16 in Maryburgh, people can meet again storyteller Lizzie McDougall at the Hospice Stone at Brahan and join her on an enchanted storywalk through the Dell to The Seer Stone. They will stop under the trees for tales of the legendary Brahan Seer and his gift of Second Sight, and other Seer Stories including the Seer Standing Stones.

Finally, on November 14, Coul House Hotel in Contin will host “A Woman Walks into a Bar...", the story of a woman who walks into the bar of an inn in a small West Highland fishing community. It’s a ceilidh house, and she is a wandering singer. For every story she has a song, and for every song there’s a story...told by storyteller Bob Pegg, singer Christina Stewart and clarsair Bill Taylor.

For the first time SISF 2021 extended an open invitation to storytellers, based or working in Scotland, to join the Festival’s creative process by submitting a proposal on the theme of Imagine. The result is a series of new works developed by storytellers and musicians’, supported by the Scottish Government Festival Expo Fund. Leading storytellers from Scotland and beyond will showcase new works.

Speaking at the Festival launch Scottish International Storytelling Festival Director Donald Smith said:

“Stories and songs are vital for human survival. They carry our emotions, memories and values. They bind us together as families, communities and a nation, especially through tough times. As we emerge from the restrictions imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic, the Scottish International Storytelling Festival will continue to engage, inspire and entertain as we travel through stories.

Our festival commissions invite us to imagine different pasts, futures, or timeless others, to challenge what we know and create the images of what we are yet to discover. These stories form the core of our live programme, whilst our Guid Crack and Global Lab sessions offer online participation in unique storytelling ceilidhs and workshops. ”

The full programme of the festival is available here.

For tickets and more information visit www.sisf.org.uk

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