FESTIVAL 2024
The Glade
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Taffy Thomas and his Talecoat
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Gerry Donlon and Eamon Keating
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Footprints Theatre - Teddies from 2023 festival
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Traditional stories, told mouth to mouth, heart to heart, have been around for a long time: but today’s storytellers are bringing this ancient tradition right into the 21st century, with stories that are demanding to be heard right now and not just by children!
Today’s stories can be riotous laugh-out-loud fun. They can have a cutting edge, and be a subversive way to challenge authority; a chance to give a voice to people who don’t often get to have their say: and a journey that takes grown people to new worlds they never expected.
This year’s festival is the third at the Food Museum, our perfect home: who doesn’t want to tell or listen to stories in an ancient tithe barn, and enchanted glad in the woods, or a tiny chapel with a tin roof. And who doesn’t know that food goes best with a story behind it, and stories are always the better with a little something to eat? Try out our Sunday story trail and find the stories hidden all round the Museum’s grounds, and sample the delights of our storytelling supper with our patron and storytelling laureate Taffy Thomas.
With a theme of ‘community’, our festival features tradition-bearers carrying centuries-old stories, alongside new tellers remaking the tradition for the future.
Shonaleigh Cumbers will tell stories from the centuries old oral tradition passed down by Jewish women and hidden in plain sight. Amy Douglas will recount traveller tales learnt during an apprenticeship from Scottish traveller storytelling hero Duncan Williamson. John Row, hero of every East Anglian Festival for miles around, will tell stories from a long career and introduce the world wide community of the World Storytelling Café.
Meanwhile Zahra Afsah’s stories come from her Persian heritage: scientist-storyteller Karin Lundengard will take storytelling several thousand years into the future. Our Sunday story trail will take you on a journey round the Museum’s ancient buildings to find the stories and storytellers hidden inside them.
We are so excited to be extending our links into the Stowmarket community that has welcomed us so warmly. We will be building on our links with local schools and with two talented local storytellers, Hannah Brailsford and Dave Tong, will get local children performing their own stories in the Tithe Barn to their family and friends to launch the festival. Footprints Theatre will work with traveller-heritage writer and broadcaster Dan Allum to enable young people to devise and perform a storytelling piece linked to the Museum’s magnificent collection of traveller caravans. And we think you might be so addicted to stories by the end of the weekend that we may need to launch Stowmarket’s very own storytelling club: get in touch if you are interested!
There’s a lot more than storytelling going on: enjoy spoken word from the incomparable Trigger Bliss of the Song School, willow work from Glenys Newton, music from Lincolnshire folk hero Mossy Christian, local band Aartwork and many others, and don’t miss our coffee van, hosted by master storyteller Nick Hennessey: every cup of coffee comes with a story, heard through headphones that give you a whole soundscape along with the story.
If you opt to camp with us, you will sleep in a magical place, where faerie rings grow in the meadow, and a ploughshare circles in the wind... Listen to the owls as you doze... a pocket of calm at the centre of Stowmarket... You'll have access to the whole of the Museum's outdoor exhibits out of hours... the mill, water-pump, chapel, animal enclosures, quiet lanes and woodland walks. Stroll the site near dawn to a glorious burst of birdsong...
For children, there will be magical puppet shows from Grethe Mangala Jensen, the chance to create your own future with the recycled magic of the Imaginarium workshop, and a chance to get stuck into books and book activities and games with Erin Hamilton of Suffolk libraries. As well as family storytelling shows all day, children will have a chance to stand on stage themselves at the children’s Spoken Word event: explore a virtual story hidden in the wild spaces of the Museum from Sarah Lloyd Winder: and of course the 88 acres of the Museum to explore, along with shire horses and other animals including some very talkative donkeys.
Reviews:
‘Such a friendly festival’ (2023)
‘Fabulous stories and tellers’ (2023)
‘Magical stories, beautiful historic venue’ (2023)
MORE ABOUT OUR LAST FESTIVAL HERE
And Past Festivals Here!
Today’s stories can be riotous laugh-out-loud fun. They can have a cutting edge, and be a subversive way to challenge authority; a chance to give a voice to people who don’t often get to have their say: and a journey that takes grown people to new worlds they never expected.
This year’s festival is the third at the Food Museum, our perfect home: who doesn’t want to tell or listen to stories in an ancient tithe barn, and enchanted glad in the woods, or a tiny chapel with a tin roof. And who doesn’t know that food goes best with a story behind it, and stories are always the better with a little something to eat? Try out our Sunday story trail and find the stories hidden all round the Museum’s grounds, and sample the delights of our storytelling supper with our patron and storytelling laureate Taffy Thomas.
With a theme of ‘community’, our festival features tradition-bearers carrying centuries-old stories, alongside new tellers remaking the tradition for the future.
Shonaleigh Cumbers will tell stories from the centuries old oral tradition passed down by Jewish women and hidden in plain sight. Amy Douglas will recount traveller tales learnt during an apprenticeship from Scottish traveller storytelling hero Duncan Williamson. John Row, hero of every East Anglian Festival for miles around, will tell stories from a long career and introduce the world wide community of the World Storytelling Café.
Meanwhile Zahra Afsah’s stories come from her Persian heritage: scientist-storyteller Karin Lundengard will take storytelling several thousand years into the future. Our Sunday story trail will take you on a journey round the Museum’s ancient buildings to find the stories and storytellers hidden inside them.
We are so excited to be extending our links into the Stowmarket community that has welcomed us so warmly. We will be building on our links with local schools and with two talented local storytellers, Hannah Brailsford and Dave Tong, will get local children performing their own stories in the Tithe Barn to their family and friends to launch the festival. Footprints Theatre will work with traveller-heritage writer and broadcaster Dan Allum to enable young people to devise and perform a storytelling piece linked to the Museum’s magnificent collection of traveller caravans. And we think you might be so addicted to stories by the end of the weekend that we may need to launch Stowmarket’s very own storytelling club: get in touch if you are interested!
There’s a lot more than storytelling going on: enjoy spoken word from the incomparable Trigger Bliss of the Song School, willow work from Glenys Newton, music from Lincolnshire folk hero Mossy Christian, local band Aartwork and many others, and don’t miss our coffee van, hosted by master storyteller Nick Hennessey: every cup of coffee comes with a story, heard through headphones that give you a whole soundscape along with the story.
If you opt to camp with us, you will sleep in a magical place, where faerie rings grow in the meadow, and a ploughshare circles in the wind... Listen to the owls as you doze... a pocket of calm at the centre of Stowmarket... You'll have access to the whole of the Museum's outdoor exhibits out of hours... the mill, water-pump, chapel, animal enclosures, quiet lanes and woodland walks. Stroll the site near dawn to a glorious burst of birdsong...
For children, there will be magical puppet shows from Grethe Mangala Jensen, the chance to create your own future with the recycled magic of the Imaginarium workshop, and a chance to get stuck into books and book activities and games with Erin Hamilton of Suffolk libraries. As well as family storytelling shows all day, children will have a chance to stand on stage themselves at the children’s Spoken Word event: explore a virtual story hidden in the wild spaces of the Museum from Sarah Lloyd Winder: and of course the 88 acres of the Museum to explore, along with shire horses and other animals including some very talkative donkeys.
Reviews:
‘Such a friendly festival’ (2023)
‘Fabulous stories and tellers’ (2023)
‘Magical stories, beautiful historic venue’ (2023)
MORE ABOUT OUR LAST FESTIVAL HERE
And Past Festivals Here!
It didn't rain!
Road to stories
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The Tithe Barn
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John Row
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Imaginarium
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Taffy with Abbots Hall School
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