About The Village Storytelling Festival 2024

Scotland’s biennial Contemporary and Community Storytelling Festival is back for 2024!  Join us from 25^th – 30^th June as we explore themes of identity and language through a rich and diverse programme of performance from acclaimed international storytellers premiering new work in Scotland, award winning homegrown talent and exciting new emerging voices in storytelling.

We are honoured to welcome Saffron, a timely piece developed by Storytelling Centre Amsterdam and Palestinian dance artist Hala Salem, while critically acclaimed storyteller Niall Moorjani explores queerness, Scottish race and gender identities through a medieval-inspired landscape in A Faerie Tale. And Story Jam returns with more mythic mayhem as we brace ourselves for tales to make you rip up the rules and riot with the Women Who Gave No F*cks (strictly grown ups!).

For younger audiences we are delighted to welcome the amazing Story Dome, a brand-new immersive storytelling experience for children that combines all the connection and magic of live storytelling with all the wow factor of cutting-edge digital technology.

We will celebrate the diversity of our wonderful city of Glasgow, its people, their stories and the ways in which they communicate them including new performances developed in Scots, Gaelic and BSL. This year’s commissions include Inheritance, Lorna Sithole Callery’s autobiographical account of two siblings growing up in Pollok in the 1980s and 90s and Smoke and Sickle, Emery Hunter’s retelling of the Selkie myth offering an exploration of identity, trust and manipulation.

As always, we are proud to present community performances from both our local neighbourhood of Pollok and groups across Glasgow who are at the heart of our work. These include an exploration of the importance of friendship and connection for adults with complex learning needs in collaboration with Capability Scotland and insights into the how language matters for the LGBTQ+ supported by Sanctuary Queer Arts. Our wonderful Young Storytellers are back with ‘Break a leg’, a story that reminds us that being different can be cool, while the always brilliant Barrhead Folk Collective return with ghostly stories and traditional music.

And finally, together with our partners Adverse Camber, Armstrong Storytelling Trust and the storytelling community of Wales we are delighted to co-host the annual conference of the Federation for European Storytelling. Taking place alongside our festival the conference will include a diverse programme of keynote speeches, workshops, lectures, informal group discussions and events, interrogating and celebrating the role of storytelling across society.

We can’t wait to welcome you to #VSF24 and offer deepest thanks to all our supporters and, most importantly, the communities we work with.

Explore the full programme now!

Contact festival@villagestorytelling.org.uk for any enquiries

For volunteering opportunities, please click here

To find out more about the FEST Conference, please visit fest-network.eu/the-conference

Venue Information

Main Festival Venue:
CCA Glasgow, 350 Sauchiehall St, Glasgow G2 3JD

Exhibition:
Glasgow School of Art – Reid Building, 164 Renfrew St, Glasgow G3 6RQ

Mini Festival:
St James (Pollok) Parish Church, 183 Meiklerig Cres, Glasgow G53 5NA