Art, Culture and Home Connections: Scottish International Storytelling Festival | Lauren Cairnie

Promotional Poster for SSF

Stories of folklore and myth are cultural staples of Celtic life, brimming with tales of selfish monarchs, monstrous creatures and magic. 

These are the fantastical tales we hear as children that open up our imagination and establish our connection with ancestral legends. 

This seminal aspect of Scottish history will be the subject of this year’s Scottish International Storytelling Festival, which will be held in Edinburgh and across Scotland between October 21 – 31. 

Bird and Beast is the theme of this year’s programme which details many events where performers and storytellers from all over the nation and the world will come together to weave fables connected to the natural world. 

Festival director Daniel Abercrombie finds there is “something very interesting going on with storytelling at the moment” and how it can bring people together. 

Daniel Abercrombie by Neil Hanna

He said: “Storytelling is an antidote; we’re tied to our phones, and we’re tied to gathering knowledge form artificial sources such as AI. In a storytelling experience, you’re looked at, you’re engaged with, the storyteller changes the story as they go depending on the audience reaction.

“All that then leads to this feeling of connection, you feel you’ve been part of something, and someone has shared something and you’re encouraged to share it with someone else, and the story continues.”

There will be many events held at the Scottish Storytelling Centre with artistic and informative pieces of recited word and music to share anecdotes of furry and feathered creatures. 

Abercrombie emphasises the importance of encouraging the next generation of upcoming storytellers who want to take their craft further and outlines how the festival is supporting them. 

David Hughes, Ruth Kirkpatrick and Daniel Abercrombie by Neil Hanna

He adds: “At the festival, we do an under 30s programme for young storytellers who are wanting to go on a creative journey, whether that is to be a creative storyteller or to upskill them with these storytelling skills that they can apply in different ways to their practice.”

Edinburgh-based storyteller David Hughes will be one of the performers at this year’s festival, he’ll be reciting ‘Warrior/Poet’, a collection of stories seeped in community, transformation and madness. 

Hughes focuses on outdoor education with children and shares the art of storytelling while connecting with nature. 

His love for the art and the natural world but recognises how science can offer reductive explanations for the world which is why art should be seen as equally important. 

He said: “A lot of our science is grounded in white western Eurocentric worldviews and patriarchal worldviews, and often we put indigenous knowledge and indigenous ways of knowing tot e side as not as important. 

Donald Smith at last SSF by Andrew Perry

“If you look at working class communities, those stories are often side lined in favour of a dominant narrative.”

The Scottish storyteller believes that reigniting the love for art and creativity can reignite people’s connection to their home and culture, something that he claims is important in a capitalist society. 

“I think, more increasingly, people are looking at the system we live under and thinking: ‘How can we find our way back to feeling a sense of belonging to the places we live and the cultures we inhabit?’. 

“Storytelling and traditional folk culture offer that; it’s a counterculture to the mainstream. 

“I hope more people are being drawn to this longing to connect with something that is more nourishing than the crumbling existence of power we’re living under just now.”

Storyteller-musician Dawud Duncan will also be performing at the festival and will be bringing ‘The Conference of the Birds: A Story for Us’, a live oral storytelling experience. 

Dawud Duncan

He said: “In Scotland, we’ve got such a rich tradition of storytelling that comes from the travellers, and what they’re saying is ‘we tell stories face to face, eye to eye and heart to heart’.

“This text that we’re basing our performance of The Conference of the Birds on is just mind-blowing, it just shows the real power of storytelling.” 

Duncan further explains the mysticism of his performance piece where it is an allegory in which humans are portrayed as birds and offers a transnational and transracial idea of what it means to be alive. 

The performer’s love of stories was first cemented during his formative years witnessing fantastical tales on the big screen and he since channelled his love for storytelling into music. 

Audience at last SSF by Andrew Perry

“I came into storytelling through music, I grew up in the West Coast of Scotland and learned a lot of traditional arts such as Gaelic singing, piping and whistle.

“I would weave storytelling into my performance, and it grew to the point where it became clear to me that storytelling was the primary focus for me.

“It’s where my passion was most intense and where I felt I could bring something to the growing and really exciting scene of storytelling of Scotland.” 

The festival is also making a commitment to keeping the festival inclusive to all attendees as there will be performances to accommodate those who are deaf and those who use British Sign Language (BSL). 

Tickets for individual events and for a festival pass can be purchased on the festival’s website here: https://www.sisf.org.uk/