The Kansas Storytelling Festival opens on Friday afternoon and closes the following evening. Within this charmed pocket of time, the Kansas Storytelling Festival offers two evening concerts and many separate sessions of stories, workshops, and music. There’s something for everyone; Puppets and Stories for Children, Homespun Tales, Historical Portrayals, Poetry, Music, and more.
On Friday afternoon and all day Saturday, storytelling sessions are held simultaneously at different locations, all within comfortable walking distance. Stories continue almost until the evening storytelling concerts. Local organizations provide food options at the festival as well as local restaurants. Opportunities to sit down and exchange stories with a friend abound.
Performers
Whether it’s toe-tappin’ music, a glimpse into history, tall tales, or simply entertaining, fun-loving anecdotes about living, there is something for everyone at this year’s 26th annual Kansas Storytelling Festival.
Bill Harley
Bill Harley uses song and story to paint a vibrant and hilarious picture of growing up, schooling and family life. His work spans the generation gap. He reminds us of our common humanity and challenges us to be our very best selves. A prolific author and recording artist, Bill tours nationwide as an author, performing artist and keynote speaker. Bill’s songs are joyous, direct and honest. His stories are filled with the details of daily life – all told and sung from his slightly off-center point of view.
www.billharley.com
Geraldine Buckley
With her trademark wit, warmth and humor, storyteller and educator Geraldine Buckley has been involved in storytelling, speaking, performance poetry and conducting creative workshops for over thirty years. She shares folktales and Greek myths and performs true stories based on her own globe-trotting adventures at festivals, schools, theatres, house-concerts, prisons, and conferences. Geraldine bridges cultural gaps and entertains with joy.
www.geraldinebuckley.com
Joe Herrington
Joe Herrington grew up in Texas at the feet of storytellers in a day before television had assaulted the young imagination. His grandfather and uncle both talked in stories and from them he learned to weave tales and appreciate the power of words. Joe loves Western ways and traditions. He writes his stories about those times and those amazing people of unblemished character and honor. In his words, “When the campfire flickers, I get a stir in my soul. A yearning swells within me to recall the events of good days past and tell their story.” Calling all Texans and others who love a story about that big western sky and the wilderness beneath it!
http://www.joeherrington.com/
Megan Hicks
Megan Hicks has a warm sense of humor and deep respect for anybody who is now or ever was a kid. She’s a storyteller who captivates audiences of all ages and from all walks of life. As a self-proclaimed Teller-Without-a-Niche, Megan dives heart-first into every story she tells – fairy tale, personal story, American history, parody, ghost and horror, humor. Magically, her listeners are happy to follow. She takes her love of whimsy with her wherever she goes as she creates new stories and adaptations, and discovers new purposes for the “found objects” that continue to inspire her ingenuity.
www.meganhicks.com
Ed Stivender
When Ed Stivender takes the stage the audience will hear yarns – yarns spun from the epic and ridiculous, yarns drawn from centuries-old traditions, and yarns improvised on the spur of the moment. Since 1977, when he left his day job as a high school teacher in Connecticut and turned to storytelling full-time. Ed has fabulated his way around the globe. In reviews of his work, Ed has been called “the Robin Williams of storytelling” and “a Catholic Garrison Keillor,” but we think you will find his stories uniquely his own.
http://www.edstivender.com
Downs, Kansas, is called the “The Town of Many Stories,” and rightly so. We tell stories. We listen to stories. We save stories. Each April since 1994 we honor stories by hosting the Kansas Storytelling Festival.
http://www.kansasstorytelling.com/
Prepurchase admission http://www.kansasstorytelling.com/register