WIREDGOV

Hastings Story Festival returns (5-11 November) with another packed programme of storytelling, bursting with storytelling for children, families and adults - thanks to National Lottery funding from the Arts Council.

Highlights include the free Children’s Storytelling Carnival Day, which includes live storytelling and performances from Xanthe Gresham, Kevin Graal, Spud & Yam, Long Nose Puppets, Jan Blake, Circo Rum Baba, Kiki La Hula, Richard Storybeard, Dolly Delicious, Radiator’s Cart of Wonders, local drummers, a life-size Snow Globe and a children’s parade.

One of Hastings Storytelling Festival’s main priorities is reaching local children. Through a series of artist residencies, the festival will work with children from 14 local schools, providing visits from festival Artist in Residence, Sarah Evans, who will work with pupils to create a range of hats which to wear in the Children’s Parade.

There will also be school visits from the Storytelling Festival Laureate, Jan Blake and Storytellers in Residence, Spud and Yam. The festival keeps all events for under 10’s free, too, so that as many local children as possible can to enjoy live storytelling.

The Festival has a local theme this year, and looks at place. Audiences at ‘Otherworld’ will encounter live storytellers recounting local tales in Hastings’ Alexandra Park.

Created by Magik Door, this exciting new digital installation will transform the park into an interactive night-time storytelling experience using images, immersive 3D audio environments, augmented reality, interactive hybrid art exhibitions and performance.

Other World is one of eight new artistic commissions for this year’s festival, including a talk by local psychogeographer, Gareth Rees, about the hidden lives of supermarket car parks, a local LGBTQ storytelling evening from ‘Mother’s Ruin’ and local stories with ‘Everything stops for tea’ by Secret Platform Theatre.

Festival Patron, Sir Quentin Blake, has once again contributed a new drawing for the festival, which is on the festival posters, brochure and website, hastingsstoryfest.org.uk, where the full programme can be found.

‘It’s eight years since Hastings Storytelling Festival emerged as a small festival’, says Dick Edwards, Chair of the Hastings Storytelling Festival. ‘Hundreds of surprising, diverse and astounding stories later, it’s getting bigger. We’re delighted to be bringing this festival to Hastings again in 2018, and we couldn’t do it without the Arts Council.’

Hedley Swain, Area Director, South East, Arts Council England, yesterday said: “Stories are an incredibly powerful way for people to engage with the arts, particularly children and young people, and so we’re very pleased so support Hastings Story Festival. It is great to see so many local schools involved and I hope it helps more children and young people to be confident and creative throughout their lives.”

The Arts Council National Lottery Project Grants is the Arts Council’s new (2018) open access programme for arts, museums and libraries projects, funded by the National Lottery. It will support thousands of individual artists, community and cultural organisations. For more information visit: https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/projectgrants.