Come and enjoy some of the finest exponents of one of the oldest arts in the world. Settle in and listen as they bring to life tales old and new: folk tales, family stories, fables, recollections, ghost stories, tall tales, fairy tales, and classic stories from many different cultures. Admission FREE.

Saturday and Sunday afternoons 15.30-18.30
in the Corn Exchange Curtis Room
(Information for disabled visitors - the Curtis Room is upstairs - please ask for assistance)

Click here for a map of Wallingford showing BunkFest venues and the Festival Bus route

Saturday afternoon
15.30-18.30

Barbara Neville
Barbara Neville has been telling tales for fifteen years and has a repertoire of over 200 stories. These come mainly from Europe and the Middle East and her particular favourites are those in which women are the main protagonists. Although working mainly with adults in clubs and arts centres, at festivals and in workshops, she has also told stories in infant, junior and middle schools. She is currently sharing in the organisation of the Oxford Storytelling Circle.

Fionnaghal
Fionnaghal is a storyteller telling traditional tales mainly, but not exclusively, from Britain and Ireland. Some of her tales are true, some said to be true and the origins of others lost in the mists of time. Fionnaghal feels that stories are for people of all ages and she is as likely to be found at a WI as a school, at WOMAD as in a kid's tent. Fionnaghal is based in Berkshire but known in a wider area.

Tina Bilbé
Since 1987 Tina has told stories in all sorts of places from schools to WOMAD, building a reputation for telling traditional tales that celebrate women's strengths and weaknesses, wit and wisdom. Working mainly with children Tina welcomes the opportunity to tell some of her bawdier stories to an older audience.

Tony Price
With a name like that, and most of his kin living west of Severn, you would think Tony should have some Welsh blood; yet he's lived all his life in England, the last nearly 20 years of it in Wessex. He loves stories that make you laugh, or feel you are touching (or touched by) the Mystery of Things. Some of them come from his childhood in the magical kingdom of North London. Others are definitely from Somewhere Else.

BunkFest Storytelling fringe back to top

Sunday afternoon
15.30-18.30

Margie Barbour
Margie Barbour has been telling stories at festivals such as Sidmouth, Towersey and Edinburgh for the past 8 years. Producing Jackanory at the BBC led to her wanting to move from adapting stories for television and directing actors to read them - to telling them herself - live! Her theatrical roots mean that she enjoys performing stories and often uses costume and props, but also loves the simplicity of the communication of the teller and the circle of listeners.

Michael O'Leary
Michael has travelled far and wide in his search for stories; from the bottom of his garden to the nearest pub. He has a particular interest in BunkFest as his mum was a girl in nearby Cholsey in the 1930s and 40s and remembers travelling on the Wallingford Bunk steam railway which would stop and wait for you if you were late, and swimming in the River Thames avoiding the Salter steamers... she was swimming in the Thames when war broke out. Michael's dad, Paddy O'Leary, comes, as the name suggests, from a little further west...Wales! All these family influences have helped shape Michael into the generally confused individual he now is... that's what makes a storyteller. Oh, and the stories come with music; it's all attention seeking.

The Travelling Talesman
Equally at home striding amongst the tables of a medieval feast or sitting on the stone at the entrance to Waylands Smithy and telling the tragic tale of that great smith, The Travelling Talesman tells the stories of these northern lands. The Celtic heroes, Norse gods, ordinary folk and the mythical creatures they meet are likely to put in an appearance and there may be a bit of local history too.

Tim Oakes
Tim began hearing stories as a lad in Wales and within his Irish-stock family near Liverpool. Then he spent twenty years as a journalist and editor before the lure of storytelling drew him back. Taking his tales from the Welsh/English borders where he lives, he has built on this stock of yarns with the addition of some wonderful and sometimes chilling stories from the Celtic and Baltic traditions - many of a witchy nature... Attracted by tales of mythological animals, he also has a whole menagerie of stories about strange beasts, and has been heard to say - "When I hear hooves I don't think ZEBRAS... I think UNICORNS!". A coracle builder, musician, prankster, and keeper of a foul-mouthed dragon...

BunkFest Storytelling fringe back to top

See you at the BunkFest!