Our Festival Of Stories happened across Jedburgh on September 16th & 17th 2023. The idea was to present a wide range of events around the theme of stories. Whilst books were our obvious “go-to”, we wanted to extend this much further to include music, film, storytelling, exhibitions, dressing up and – perhaps most importantly – encouraging the creation of new things!
There were 21 events in total, all free to attend. We were delighted to be joined by writers Alistair Moffat and Theresa Breslin who talked about their work. There were numerous writing workshops, including creative walks around the town. Young people were well catered for, with storytelling and theatre workshops and the excellent fancy dress party with additional crafts, activities and live music. Iain Fraser performed in the shop too, and we created local photographer Derek Jackson’s first ever photography exhibition, documenting the changing face of Jedburgh over the years, which brought back many stories and memories.
Audience feedback was overwhelmingly positive with praise for the ease of access of the events and the chance to easily try something new. We’re really pleased that off the back of the event, many of the practitioners, such as Borders Youth Theatre, have now started working regularly in the town.
We also produce a zine called The Book Of Jed which included some of the work created at the festival.
Festival Of Stories was funded by Scottish Borders Council and we hope it can return in 2024.