Mayo and Galway to host 'Stone Mad' Storytelling Festival
This inaugural running of the Festival has emerged from the partnership of the Mourne, Gullion and Strangford Geopark in County Down and the Joyce Country and Western Lakes Geopark.
So you like a good yarn, do you? Well, you’re in for a treat. The ‘Stone Mad’ Storytelling Festival is set to kick off in the Joyce Country and Western Lakes Geopark area on the weekend of October 25 to 27.
Venues in Finney, The Neale, Clonbur, Cong, Ballinrobe and elsewhere in the area will host a programme of events made up of varied genres of the art of storytelling to include professional storytellers, ‘walk and talk’ history strolls, music, film and drama... all with the odd cup of tea, or stronger, in hand! Significantly, local groups will host and participate in the activities and these include Women’s/Men’s Sheds, Ciorcail Comhrá, writers groups, primary schools and community groups in the Geopark area.
This inaugural running of the Festival has emerged from the partnership of the Mourne, Gullion and Strangford Geopark in County Down and the Joyce Country and Western Lakes Geopark. With support from the Shared Island Fund at the Department of Foreign Affairs, the two Geoparks have engaged with each other over the last couple of years to set up useful channels of transfer of know-how and methods and models by which a Geopark can evolve a positive economic dividend for its participating communities.
Indeed this is completely consistent with the ambitions of all UNESCO Global Geoparks. This accreditation is just around the corner for Joyce Country and Western Lakes Geopark. And so, the profiling and development of heritage, traditions and cultural aspects in our local communities is an obvious starting point.
“Everybody likes a story and better still if it’s told in style,” said Trish Walsh, Chair of GeoEnterprise, the cross-community Geopark group and key organiser of this event. “Without tampering with the integrity of this ancient art form, we wondered if this tradition of storytelling can be ‘productised,’ so to speak. Our partners in County Down have proven it most definitely can!”, she noted.
The successful Storytelling festival in Hilltown in County Down, ‘The Gathering’, which runs in early March each year, has set the bar on how to cleverly exploit and blend the various genres of storytelling and bring it to audiences in a totally different and most engaging way. The organisers of that event are now assisting the Joyce Country Geopark partners to put on a similar Festival over three days and nights and are bringing outstanding professional performers with them to showcase their talent and delight audiences in South Mayo and the Joyce Country.
Stone Mad, The Joyce Country and Western Lakes Geopark inaugural Storytelling Festival, will be officially launched in the library in Ballinrobe on Thursday night, October 24, at 6pm. Keep an eye out for social media and other promotions over the next few days.
