The New Troubadours — Storytelling, Music and Punk Poet Events Calendar (UK)

For starters, storytelling is not (just) for children... It's an entertaining way of passing the time. But it's also a lot more than that: a way of sharing epic tales and passing on common sense smarts, explaining the landscape, recounting local legends and keeping the memory of people and place alive.

Story circles and story clubs are often informal gatherings of tellers and listeners who meet up every so often, in a casual setting, to sit around a table and share tales that last 5 to 8 minutes. Stories are told rather than read, and often take the form of folk or traditional tales, as well as myths, legends, and lies, that have been "heard", or "found", rather than "authored", even though they may have been heavily worked on by the teller. By agreement, some story clubs or story circles may provide opportunities for longer stories to be told. Some story clubs may feature performance storytelling from local storytellers or guest storytellers, as well open performance storytelling floor spots.

Performance storytelling moves the teller or tellers rather more to centre stage, adopting a more formal setting than a sharing of stories in a story circle, and with the teller clearly taking on a performer role. Stories often take longer in the telling than tales told in story circles, 8 to 15 minutes or so, or even longer, up to an hour for many longer traditional tales.

A storytelling show is a performance event in which one or more storytellers tell one or more tales in a formal or semi-formal setting. A storytelling set, or show, show often shapes several stories to fit an overarching narrative or theme. Not comedy, not theatre, storytelling shows take the performer and audience alike into an eternal moment of remembered times and places that never existed. Which is to say, into a time of once...

For the purpose of this list, folk nights, folk clubs and open mics are open invitation events where storytellers have previously had a slot. (Folk nights as listed here often define "folk music" in quite broad terms..) Folk nights often have a one or two song policy, so a short 3-5 minute tale. By invitation, (particularly if you have travelled and can demonstrate a performance reputation elsewhere) you may be able to get a longer slot. Folk clubs are slightly more formal and more traditional in their repertoire. Sometimes you might get a second turn, which means you can split a longer tale at a cliff-hanger. Open mics are typically amplified events, though you can often get away with not using the mic. The slots may be more generous, with an up to four song policy, or a 10-12 minute tale, though you should probably work up to that over several sessions to build trust with the organiser and from the audience. To take part in any of these events, give your name to the person running the club/session. Contacting organisers beforehand can also put them on the look out for you.