Festival at the Edge celebrates thirty years of stories
Everyone loves a good story, and this year sees Festival at the Edge celebrating thirty years of providing thousands of them.
From the ghostly grotesque to the trickster tale, the fairy story to the anecdote, a big festival party will celebrate them all.
The festival was set up, full of enthusiasm and energy. It was to be a festival of stories, with a side order of music and dance, and it was to be for the whole family - because stories aren’t just for children.
Organisers booked professional storytellers from all over the world and from just around the corner. People bought tickets and came to watch and listen, then they came to look and learn and took part in workshops and master classes and story rounds.
Local schools were visited and stories were told, teaching pupils that if you give the gift of a story, you can still keep the gift yourself.
For many years the festival took place during a weekend in July just outside Much Wenlock. Time passed and the people on the committee changed and the committee grew and altered but the idea remained the same - a world-class festival in a beautiful place providing amazing tales.
The team booked Japanese tale tellers, Romany travellers and Native Americans. They had dancers from Vietnam and India... It was a lot of work, as volunteers had jobs and other commitments but the festival carried on because they felt they’d got a wonderful festival and loved doing it...
Then there was Covid. Like everything else the festival had to stop - and went online before returning in person at a new venue.
A festival spokesperson said: "We moved our festival, lock stock (and barrel – now containing Hobsons beer) to the beautiful Hopton Court at Hopton Wafers, just outside Cleobury Mortimer. We took a deep breath of fresh air (smelling slightly of hand sanitiser) and re-commenced in July 2021.
"We feel we’ve found our spiritual home in the Walled Garden and this year we plan to celebrate our 30th birthday.
"Come and join us for the weekend. If you’ve never been to a storytelling festival before you’ll just love it. It’s a gentle, laid back event in a beautiful part of Shropshire. You can hear stories from all over the world, listen to music and songs watch dancers and buy wonderfully crafted gifts…"
Festival at the Edge takes place at Hopton Court, Hopton Wafers over the weekend of 21-23 July 2023 for more details see festivalattheedge.org.
