Festivals Day 2

Festivals - Day 2

This was essentially a small music festival some 65 miles away - which meant allowing 2 hours for the journey as the roads are narrow and the holiday traffic can be heavy.

I was a bit nervous as I really had no idea what to expect but the advance information seemed very thorough - and I would be working with 4 other storytellers. The schedule said I would be doing 3 sessions of just 20 minutes each over a 5 hour day - a really easy task.

The traffic moved smoothly... so I arrived early, which was helpful as the storytelling marquee was not in the place listed in the advance information and no one seemed to know where it was.  Eventually a map of the site was found and the marquee identified - not far away and quite attractive with one side wide open and plenty of rugs and cushions scattered around - but is was quite a distance from the car park so I was glad I had

packed everything into a large basket on wheels.

One of the other storytellers was booked to do walkabout stuff and had his own marquee, so we never actually met. Another was an author who needed to get away early - so the schedule was already useless. That left 3 of us and it worked beautifully... we took turns to tell stories or sing songs and all 3 of us stayed in the marquee together most of the time.

It was very relaxed - a constant flow of small groups of audience, both children and adults - and I thoroughly enjoyed having a chance to meet and work with other tellers - but.... this was a music festival! 

The main stage was on the other side of the field, but the volume was so loud it made it very difficult to tell stories and before long my head was pounding and my throat suffering from trying to compete.