It is almost time for the 2026 Scottish Storytelling Festival next month with its biggest ever Go Local programme featuring more than 100 events.
The local events programme will take place in village halls, pubs and parks with stortytellers the length and breadth of the country from October to November.
With support from The Scottish Government’s Expanded Festivals Fund, Creative Scotland Multi-year Funding and support from The City of Edinburgh Council the 37the festival programme has just been revealed.
Culture Secretary, Màiri McAllan, said: “Over nearly four decades, the Scottish International Storytelling Festival has celebrated our nation’s rich storytelling traditions, bringing together voices from across Scotland and around the world. Backed by multi-year funding from Creative Scotland and the Expanded Festivals Fund, the Scottish Government is proud to support this outstanding, globally significant cultural event.
“As we mark 20 years of the Scottish Storytelling Centre, this year’s programme theme, Bird and Beast, captures the deep connection between our stories and the natural world we share. The largest ever Go Local programme underlines the importance the festival places on community, and bringing people together, through events in towns and villages across Scotland.
“I’d encourage everyone to explore this year’s programme and discover storytelling’s power to connect us with each other and the world around us.”
The festival runs from 21 to 31 October with eleven days of storytelling on this year’s theme of Bird and Beast.
Highlights include:
● The opening event of the festival Aderyn/Bird, with Ailsa Dixon and Ffion Phillips, whose sell-out show during this year’s Edinburgh Fringe weaves together Welsh and Scots language with magical tales of birds.
● Drut’syla traditional storyteller Shonaleigh collaborating with Turkish storytellers Nazlı Çevik Azazi and Roza Erdem to interweave traditional Anatolian tales with Shonaleigh’s ‘Bubbe’s tales’ that have been passed down through the generations.
● Italian storytellers Paola Balbi and Davide Bardi sharing a poetic and musical tale about the early years of Leonardo Da Vinci.
● Bologna’s Fraternal Compagnia APS, presenting their reinterpretation of the myth of Dedalus and Icarus. This timeless tale of rebellion and power, will be performed in recognition of the centenary of Nobel Prize winner Dario Fo.
● Tony Bonning and Allison Galbraith sharing tales of a fiery Clydesdale and a recounting of Tony’s epic adventure travelling with his horse Chief across Scotland collecting Kelpie tales, in the Year of the Horse.
● The Celtic myth of Mad Sweeney, and the story of Colin MacLeod and the Pollok Free State presented by David Hughes, sharing stories of community and resistance, belonging, masculinity and madness.
● Recently appointed Scots Scriever Claire White sharing music, film and stories from Shetland.
● Lithuanian storyteller Daiva Ivanauskaite-Brown blending folklore, family legacy, and history in Bird of Truth, accompanied by Edinburgh’s Sutartinės Lithuanian folk singers.
● Storyteller Donald Smith leading two epic storytelling sessions each over three hours in length. The first exploring the life of St Columba and the second the legends of Ossian. Each session of Rewilding Scotland’s Epics is presented in collaboration with guest storytellers from across Scotland and Ireland.
● Riikka Palonen sharing tales from the cow sheds of Finland and Satu Lankinen teaching a Nordic cow-call ‘kulning’ and exploring traditional herding songs.
● Freya McCall, Shaneen McGurnaghan and Nina Willms sharing stories and songs exploring historically-inspired stories about women weaving themselves agency, alongside three spinsters who spin fate.
● Ailsa Dixon sharing fascinating historical tales of feral, seaweed eating sheep on the Isle of North Ronaldsay who live within a 13 km area hemmed in by a dry stane dyke
● An anniversary event to mark 20 years of the Scottish Storytelling Centre, and 20 years of the National Theatre of Scotland. This event, Culture, Democracy and the Stateless Nation on Fri 23 Oct, includes a special in-conversation with former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and theatre critic Joyce McMillan.
● 20 years of The Man Who Planted Trees with Richard Medrington, Rick Conte, Puppet State’s Elspeth Murray and Dog reminiscing and resharing their favourite bits of the show.
When the school holidays begin on 10 October there will be a packed programme for children with a free Family Storytelling Day on 24 October at the National Museum of Scotland, craft workshops to celebrate Samhain and new sessions telling stories at Edinburgh Zoo. The Scottish Wildlife Trust will announce winners of their Words of the Wild nature writing competition and Andy Cannon’s new show, The Last People on Earth, will have its premiere.
There will be relaxed Open Hearth sessions with storytellers and musicians in Morning Circiles and Story Circles.
Daniel Abercrombie, Scottish International Storytelling Festival Director said: “We are delighted to present this special moment in Scotland’s storytelling calendar which showcases this wonderful oral tradition across the whole of Scotland. The Scottish International Storytelling Festival is a place where creative opportunities are nurtured and where creative risks can be taken, where the tradition is safeguarded and the contemporary is encouraged.
Our Bird and Beast theme this year allows us a chance to enjoy and explore stories which carry a message about the way humans can understand and respect the planet we share with animals and nature.
We look forward to welcoming old and new friends this autumn, to celebrate with a programme full of imagination, opportunity and generosity, led with great skill and enthusiasm by our storytellers, for it’s through them that we continue to celebrate and be proud of our storytelling scene in Scotland.”
Catriona Hawksworth, Traditional Arts Officer at Creative Scotland said: “Storytelling is a vital part of Scotland’s cultural life- connecting us to our heritage while creating space for new voices, new ideas and international exchange.
This year’s festival will weave these strands together in a programme that celebrates Scotland’s rich storytelling traditions while opening them up to audiences and artists from around the world and making storytelling accessible to communities and audiences across Scotland.”
