Storytelling festival ready to tell a tale
THE sixth annual Listowel Storytelling Festival is set to kick off this coming Thursday, September 19 and will run until Sunday, September 22.
The event, coupled with the annual Culture Night that takes place on September 20, will see Listowel transform into the cultural heartbeat of North Kerry, offering a vibrant array of events that honour and celebrate the region’s rich heritage and traditions.
Over the course of the few days of the festival, there will be rich schedule of performances, workshops, story swaps, art exhibitions, lectures and music sessions to keep people of all ages well and truly entertained. This festival is described by organisers as “a unique opportunity to experience Kerry’s storytelling prowess alongside invited guests, celebrating the universal power of oral traditions.”
Events kick off on Thursday September 19 with a biodiversity walk along the River Feale followed by the launch of two art exhibitions by Listowel Visual Artists Collective members Godfrey Coppinger and Jean McNamara.
Speaking to The Kerryman this week, Cara Trant from the Kerry Writers’ Museum gave a run down of what people can expect from this year’s festival.
“It’s a celebration of the great old tradition of storytelling and cultural traditions of both Kerry and the wider region. We have invited guests as well so we get to hear stories being shared from different parts of the Ireland and the world. It’s a festival where we celebrate a broader definition of storytelling. We consider it [storytelling] a broad term. There’s storytelling music, poetry, song and because of this, we have various arts events on over the weekend,” she said.
“Our guest storytellers this year are people like Shane Ibbs, who is a UK based storyteller. He has performed all over the world but I think that this will be his first time performing on an Irish stage. Another performer will be Maria Gillen and she’ll be a returning act. She’s from Cork and has been a great supporter of our festival here and just a fantastic storyteller as well.”
“One of the big shows that we will have on Saturday night is Pakie O’Callaghan.
He’a Cork man and he has developed a one-man show celebrating the stories of the great Kerry seanchaí Eamon Kelly. That is on in St John’s Theatre on Saturday night and it should be a wonderful occasion. From Dublin then, we have Mary Kate O’Flanagan. She is one of the new storytellers on the block but she has developed a one-woman show called ‘Making a Show of Myself ’ and again, this should be amazing,” Cara continued.
Younger audience will be able to enjoy the ever-popular Children’s Storytime and new to this year’s programme is Clan Life Living History Display from The Last Prince storytellers.
The weekend will also feature a series of lectures on local folklore by Tom Dillon and Ciarán Walsh and a special lecture by Owen McMahon on Listowel Drama Group to mark the 80th anniversary of the group’s establishment. Poets Gabriel Fitzmaurice and Paddy Bushe will also be launching new books at the festival.
Kerry Writers’ Museum added that they would like to thank the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport & Media; Kerry County Council and Fáilte Ireland for their support of the 2024 festival.