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On April 25 and 26, the 31st annual Kansas Storytelling Festival will be held in Downs, KS. The festival attracts visitors from all around Kansas, other states and other countries. As Sherry Knouf, festival chairperson, says, “We have visitors from coast to coast and border to border, even Canada and Norway.”.
This year’s featured storytellers are nationally known tellers such as Ed Stivender, Pippa White, Paul Strickland, Priscilla Howe and Michael D. McCarty.
Priscilla Howe returns for her fourth time and was a featured storyteller at the first two festivals. Pippa White has also entertained attendees three times with her unique, captivating, and touching stories. This will be Ed Stivender’s third appearance – the last time was the 26th festival in 2019. Newcomers Paul Strickland and Michael D. McCarty round out the featured entertainment that you won’t want to miss. The featured storytellers will perform several times during the festival.
A special early opportunity is available for the public to “Meet the Storytellers” at 7:00 pm. on Thursday evening, April 24. Stivender, White, Strickland, Howe and McCarty will all be on hand to visit and swap stories. There is no charge to come and meet the storytellers.
The Kansas Storytelling Festival officially begins at 1:30 p.m. on Friday, April 25 with Ed Stivender and Priscilla Howe entertaining children of all ages. There are two other sessions on Friday afternoon before the Tall Tales Contest and evening session begins at 7:00 p.m. Four tall tale contestants will compete for the coveted championship shovel trophy awarded that night.
Each of the featured tellers and the Legends will provide a short snippet of their stories during a “Olio” performance. The evening wraps up with a hour-long ghost story session by Paul Strickland.
Saturday’s storytelling sessions begin at 10:00 a.m. and run through 5:00 p.m. with a two-hour break at noon.
The Grand Finale session begins at 7:00 p.m. with Ed Stivender, Pippa White and Michael D. McCarty giving festival goers a last chance to laugh, cry and wonder at the miracle of storytelling.
Full information about the festival storytellers and schedules is available at https://www.kansasstorytellingfestival.com/ or the Kansas Storytelling Festival Facebook page.