5 things to see at Scottish International Storytelling Festival
The festival returns with everything from Bulgarian folk tales to Nordic cow calling
The Scottish International Storytelling Festival is back, with this year’s theme of Bird And Beast connecting the folklore of Scotland and nations further afield. There’s a packed programme at the Scottish Storytelling Centre in Edinburgh, as well as events across the country, from Dumfries to Shetland. Here, we pick out five highlights focusing very much on the International part of the festival’s title.
Bologna Fraternal Compagnia: Masquerade Mask Capitani
Bologna’s Fraternal Compagnia (pictured) specialises in Commedia dell’Arte, the Italian theatre tradition built around masks, recognisable characters and physical comedy. The Capitani (Captains) are among its larger-than-life figures: swaggering military men whose bravado often exposes their foolishness. The company brings this masked tradition to the festival, where comedy and improvisation meet familiar themes of power and human nature.
Nana Tomova
Bulgarian storyteller Nana Tomova launches Bulgarian Folk Tales, a new book collection drawing on stories passed down through generations. Folk tales offer more than magic and adventure; they preserve a community’s beliefs, concerns and humour, shaped by the voices that retell them. Tomova’s event brings Bulgarian storytelling into the room, with the book providing another way to encounter the tradition.
Sinéad O’Brien
Irish storyteller Sinéad O’Brien joins Gráinne Holland, David Hughes, Martin MacIntyre and Donald Smith for Rewilding Scotland’s Epics: The Ossian Cycle. The group returns to the legendary tales associated with Ossian, where landscape, memory and myth meet. The event explores how an epic tradition continues to live through retelling rather than remaining fixed on the page.
Evrim Ölçer Özünel
Turkish storyteller and academic Evrim Ölçer Özünel is a leading expert in intangible cultural heritage, also known as living heritage. Her work examines how stories, knowledge and cultural practices are passed between generations and adapted by the communities that keep them alive. Her contribution brings a research-informed perspective to storytelling as a living practice, shaped by place, memory and shared experience.
Satu Lankinen
Finnish musician Satu Lankinen joins storyteller Riikka Palonen for tales from Finland’s cow sheds. Alongside stories of herding life, they share traditional herding songs and kulning, the high, carrying call used to communicate across open landscapes. The performance connects music and oral tradition with rural life, showing how everyday work and the natural world have shaped Finland’s storytelling heritage.
Scottish International Storytelling Festival takes place across Scotland from Wednesday 21–Saturday 31 October.