Scottish International Storytelling Festival

For centuries live oral storytelling, blended with music and song, has carried Scotland's voices from generation to generation – and round the world. The Scottish International Storytelling Festival carries this ancient tradition into the future with the stories of Highland and Lowland Scotland, and of the Scots who travelled across the globe.

Festival events host authentic voices from home and abroad at the hearth of Scotland. Storytelling performance events are complemented by talks and discussions, film screenings, participative workshops, 'Meet the Storyteller' sessions and an international networking day for storytellers and network members.

Who? 2012 tba

When? OCTOBER

Where? Edinburgh and venues across the Lothians | AA Route Planner | multimap

How much? Events free for schools, evening events £8-£10

Festival Website: www.scottishstorytellingcentre.co.uk

Tel: 0131 652 3272

Previous festivals:

2011 Theme; An Island Odyssey: Scotland & Old Europe

"Odysseus had finally arrived home. After traversing the Mediterranean, meeting every kind of god and monster, he came home to the lovely and long-suffering Penelope, killed the wannabe suitors, was reunited with his son and then …Then he got bored. So he set out again on his travels but this time Odysseus went through the Straits of Gibraltar and headed north …His adventures had only just begun.'

The 2011 Scottish International Storytelling Festival unites the shores and islands of the Mediterranean world and those of Scotland, as Odysseus reaches this ancient home of storytelling.

Old routes are reconnected, navigating by song, stories and music. Celtic meets Mediterranean as the myths of Greece and Rome and those of the north mix in a new Olympic contest. And the contestants -the connector- are the wandering bards, storytellers and minstrels.