FEST CONFERENCE 14-16 June & Pannon StoryFest 16-17 June 2023, Veszprém, Hungary
From Spinning Rooms to Trendy Café's
FEST and Meseszó Association in cooperation with Csűrdöngölő Cultural Association have the pleasure to invite the international storytelling community to the annual FEST conference 2023 in Hungary from 14 – 16 June 2023, followed by the Pannon StoryFest an international storytelling festival from 16 - 17 June. We invite storytellers from Europe and beyond to visit the vibrant 2023 European Capital of Culture, the "City of Queens" in Veszprém -Hungary.
Conference Venue
The event will take place in the Hangvilla Event Center, this is the newest multifunctional, community building that organises an area of different programs and events realised with unique features.
Travel
Arrival by airplane at Liszt Ferenc Airport, Budapest
Take the bus or train to Veszprém, press the button 'How to get there' for more detailed information.
Accommodations
For the 2023 conference FEST will not organise the accommodation. All participants will have to book their own accommodation.
The conference host has some hotel suggestions, where you can get a special rate with a reduction code these rooms are limited and will only be available until 10 May 2023. Upon your registration for the conference you will receive an email, within the week with more detailed information concerning the hotels and how you can make a booking.
Hotel suggestions:
Hotel Betekints
Prices between €60 and €170/night
20 min walk from Hang Villa
Address: 8200 Veszprém, Veszprémvölgyi u. 4.
Villa Medici Hotel
prices between €60 and €165/night
20 min walk from Hang Villa
H-8200 Veszprém, Kittenberger utca 11.
Budget option
The host organisation also secured a budget option for accommodation in the form of a hostel/dormitory.
Details:
- Shared rooms
- No air conditioning
- Price: approximately 30,00 Euro/room/night
Don't now what to expect?
Look at the recap of the previous FEST-conference Lithuania
Invitation FEST Conference 2023
Partners
Csűrdöngölő Kulturális Egyesület
Meseszó Egyesület
European Capital of Culture
| 14:00 | Guest Welcoming & Check in |
| 19:00 | Conference opening event and dinner at the bank of the Sed - park near the hotel |
Hangvilla Event Centre
| 8:30 | Bus to Hangvilla |
| 9:00 | Conference opening |
| 9:30 | Hungarian Science Academy |
| 10:15 | Ongoing storytelling Revival in Europe |
| 11:00 | COFFEE BREAK |
| 11:30 | Workshops |
| 13:00 | LUNCH |
| 14:30 | Workshops |
| 16:00 | COFFEE BREAK |
| 16:15 | Living Folklore in Hungary - Hungarian Heritage House |
| 17:00 | Day I closure - Plenary session |
| 18:00 | Bus transfer to hotel |
| 18:30 | Gala Dinner |
| 20:30 | Storytelling programme |
Hangvilla Event Centre
| 8:30 | Bus to Hangvilla |
| 9:00 | Plenary session |
| 9:30 | Hungarian Science Academy |
| 10:00 | Open space workshop - exchange experiences - topics decided by participants - Facilitated |
| 13:00 | LUNCH |
| 14:00 | Folk craft workshops |
| 15:00 | Workshops |
| 16:00 | COFFEE BREAK |
| 16:30 | Day II closure - Plenary session (Host & FEST) |
| 18:00 | Dinner conference location |
| 19:00 | Hungarian state folk ensemble |
| 20:00 | Hungarian Dance House |
Pannon StoryFest - International Storytelling festival
Workshops & Lectures
Listen here storytelling folks, this here workshop is like a school for storytelling promotion. It's designed to teach ya how to use the Midjourney A.I. a tool to make professional looking images without needin' to have the fancy photography or design skills of an artist. You’ll make pictures. so pretty, folks will be lining up to hear ya spin a yarn!
*blurb rewritten by A.I. in the writing style of Mark Twain
Bio
"Well let me tell ya, Chris De Backer (from Belgium) has been spinnin' tales like a yarn spinnin' machine since 2000. At first, he was only tellin' stories to young'uns under the alias "De Belleman." But lo and behold, he discovered a new breed of young'uns, the adult kind. He's quite partial to tales with a twisty turny endin' ya see. But then the coronavirus hit and Chris had to get creative, like a fox. He started recording and streaming his tales, and even created a little project he likes to call "Wanderin' with Stories." Where folks can listen to his recorded tales through them fancy QR codes they find on a storytelling walk. And ya know what, his latest passion is usin' artificial intelligence like a pro, to give his storytelling a little extra oomph. And this here workshop is a prime example of that, combinin' A.I. and a storyteller's own powerful language to create beautiful, professional images that align perfectly with their yarns."
*Bio rewritten by A.I. in the writing style of Mark Twain
In everyone’s life, there are things we rather not want to talk about. Sometimes these things are so difficult, we even try to forget them consciously or unconsciously. In this workshop, I want to share my experience in using stories and storytelling in helping people to talk about things and themes they usually can’t talk about. I used and developed these techniques in my work as a psychologist, talking with people: adults and youngsters with psychological issues such as trauma, anxiety, … I also use them in my work as a family worker to talk with family members about difficult issues.
it will be an active workshop in which we experience on the spot how these techniques can work.
Tom has over 20 years experience as a storyteller, performance creator and trainer. He is a qualified Psychologist with expertise in Psychodrama and Narrative therapy and works in schools and with families and individuals.
This interactive workshop will use the ancient Kalila wa Dimna, fables of animals speaking truth, to explore the role storytelling can play in social transformation. These fables carried their roots from ancient India into Persia, continuing into the Arab world before travelling into Europe. Coined as the first political science book ever written, the stories changed to suit each culture and time period. However, the message of friendship and loyalty as a way of achieving unity has always remained.
We will use our modern reality to analyse these ancient tales and how they apply to our current political and social times. By connecting the stories to our personal and familial reality, we will connect to the wider picture of social transformation.
Bio
Sarah comes from a long line of storytellers on her paternal side. She tells stories to both adults and children. Sarah has told stories both nationally and internationally at festivals in Canada, United Arab Emirates, Bosnia and Croatia. Because, Sarah, grew up in several countries she tells stories from all over the world with the focus on Palestinian and Croatian stories where her roots lie. Her favourite stories are ones that promote social change. Sarah has also used stories in a therapeutic way with children in refugee camps and refugee children in Toronto, as part of their therapy. She works at the Parent Child Mother Goose Program using traditional storytelling to encourage parent child bonding. Sarah belongs to a collective called "Musical Story Studio" where stories and music are combined in performance and through workshops. Sarah tells stories so that she may go deep inside of the tales and find herself in far-away magical places, that she remembers, from long, long ago.
For every life event and change (breaking-up, marrying, departing, etc.) there exists a folk song which can deepen the feeling of that precise moment of liminality, when someone changes his or her life status, when something changes forever.
In this workshop I would like to share the tools that makes my performances more vivid: folk songs of my ancestors, illustrating the folk tales of my country, and also share my passion for folk songs – so that participants can also explore their folk songs and roots for their own stories.
Bio
Storyteller, writer, literature editor. She was born in Veszprém, Hungary, 1986. She has studied Hungarian literature, ethnography and folkloristics in the University of Szeged. She travelled to Finland, South Korea, Malaysia, Italy and all around Europe, including Erdély. She writes tales and tell stories since her son was born, and part of the Hungarian MythOff group. She has storytelling events near Veszprém, mostly for adults.
In this workshop we will explore what authentic or free speech in relation to storytelling, where it comes from and where it can lead. But especially how we can initiate and train it.
Short stories introduce exercises that are started in this workshop and can be continued at home.
The exercises are done in small groups around tables, sometimes writing individually, sometimes sharing in the group. In a rotating system, every 10/12 minutes one moves on to the next table to start a new exercise.
The workshop promises to be fun, thrilling and consciousness-expanding. It will certainly lead to further interesting conversations!
Bio
Veva Gerard is a professional ‘artist of the spoken word’. She graduated from LUCA in Leuven and from the Kleine Academie in Brussels and started as a presenter, recitation artist, and actress. In addition, she was an inspired and inspiring teacher in these domains for a long time. Later on, she discovered storytelling.
She lobbied for and ensured storytelling an official place in the renewed art decree for part-time art education by the Ministry of Education. Now, storytelling can be a subsidised course in all academies throughout Flanders, interested in organising it.
Her own storytelling course at the Podiumacademie Lier is well attended by students from Flanders and the Netherlands and colleagues from other academies, making her a full time storytelling teacher.
In both Belgium and the Netherlands she is often a guest lecturer and sometimes sits on juries.
For the Federation for European Storytelling, she worked on a competence model for oral storytelling, and she developed a toolbox to get started with this model. She also gave international lectures and masterclasses on this topic.
But of course, she also likes to perform on stage, preferably with her musical storytelling collective 'Zus en Zo'.
Peig Sayers (1873-1958) was first famous, then infamous, in Ireland. For roughly the first half of the twentieth century she was well-known to linguists, folklore scholars, learners of the Irish language, as an exceptionally clear and fine speaker of Gaeilge, and as a storyteller of extraordinary gifts and international acclaim.
But Unfortunately, a selective memoir taught in highschools and various other complex reasons, led the name of Peig to become used as a symbol for everything that was perceived to be wrong with Ireland and Irish education. The real Peig was known to folklorists, scholars, linguists, but to the general public she was a figure to be ridiculed and despised.
This Interactive session explores my research and development of Peig’s stories carried out in collaboration with a digital artist and scholar. Particularly the session aims to explore that area between story sharing in a personal intimate environment such as a fireside or a café and a larger performance space which makes it a theatrical event.
I believe storytelling is caught between those two stools, just as Peig Sayers was when she was caught between the joyful oral expression of her art as a storyteller and the tyranny of the printer's ink.
Bio
Nuala Hayes is a pioneer of the Irish Storytelling revival post 1990’s. Trained as an actor at the Abbey Theatre she subsequently set up Ireland’s first touring Theatre for Children: TEAM, the experience of which first drew her to storytelling as a performance art. She went on to co-found Two Chairs Company with Musician Ellen Cranitch and toured extensively, performing Irish myths, legends and folktales interwoven with music.
As time passed, she became aware of Storytellings broader context and its important social function to bring people of all ages together. So, in 1991 She organised the first International Storytelling Festival across Dublin county, Scéalta Shamhna, which ran for 10 years. She learnt so much from the global storytellers who performed, each one unique and talented in their own way.
Nuala was Artist in Residence in County Laois in 2002/2003 where she documented a body of folktales and folklore from the Midlands of Ireland, which became the basis for Laois Folktales published by the History Press in 2015.
In November 2022, she was invited to participate in The World Forum for Democracy at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, contributing to discussions on History and Politics and presenting on Storytelling and Democracy. She also told one of Peig Sayers’ stories in the Hemicycle to mark the end of Ireland’s Presidency of the Council. A Highlight !Nuala believes in Collaboration and has been a member of Storytellers of Ireland for many years and was instrumental in their integration into FEST. She recently stepped away from the role as Chairperson of Storytellers of Ireland, to continue her own exploration of stories and storytelling. Peig Sayers, The Queen of Irish Storytellers is her latest project and she is happy to be sharing the experience with members of FEST in Hungary in June, she would like to thank The Mermaid Arts Centre and Culture Ireland for their support.
This session is aimed at people who tell stories on stages who want to become more aware and improve how they use their bodies in any given space. The participant will:
- acquire a better knowledge of what a scenic space is and how to fully occupy it
- give more clarity, more suspense, more emotion to the images of their stories
- gain deeper insight into recurrent voices, body patterns and unconscious gestures.
The purpose of the workshop is to enable you to be a more congruent and efficient storyteller
by deepening your sense of Self. To achieve this, we will provide you with tools to:
- give you deeper insight into your recurrent voice patterns that may limit your performance
- gain awareness of body patterns and unconscious gestures
- improve movement and gestures to strengthen your stories
Each participant is invited to make this toolkit their own and then to draw from it the aesthetic choices which suits him/her best. The gestures and movement are easy and accessible to all. However, they set in motion parts of the body which are little used on a daily basis.
Bio
Artistic Director of Vortex, Caroline Sire, is a storyteller, singer, movement actress, teacher and author. She was trained in classical and contemporary dance, medieval and sacred chanting and learned traditional singing in Ireland. She discovered the world of storytelling with Abbi PATRIX (Compagnie du Cercle) when she performed in his show The Wanderings of Grainne which was distinguished in 1992 at the Grand Prix des Conteurs of Chevilly Larue. Caroline joined La Compagnie du Cercle and worked there for four years.
In 2005, she discovered the work and body grammar of Etienne DECROUX via the Théâtre du Mouvement Company as part of The Lab Masterclass at the Maison du Conte de Chevilly Larue in Paris. She deepened her practice around the theatricality of movement with Yves MARC through several workshops. In 2007, they worked together to create the show Sheen's Wondrous Story and subsequently their two companies have gone on to organise artistic residences and workshops together in the Studio-Grange of Clavères (near Toulouse, France).
Caroline is also an author writing stories for young people, her first work La Nuit des Secrets was published by SYROS Publishing Co in April 2018. She participates in many international projects and festivals through FEST - Federation for European Storytelling and in partnership with the Raccontamiunastoria Company.
Caroline attempts to answer the question: how does a storyteller best serve the fullness of the story's numerous layers, especially the ones for which the simple meaning of words do not convey (body metaphor).
Multi-Lingual Storytelling / Mamiaith (Mother Tongue)
Bio
Bio
Johan Theodorsson is an international performance storyteller. He works as a storyteller for both children and adults and as a teacher in storytelling and drama. Johan has worked five years as a drama teacher in pre schools in Stockholm where he told stories for children every day. The most notable work is his collaboration in Musikteater Unna with the musician Anders Peev. The duo's critically acclaimed ”Maria Johansdotter” has played over 250 shows in Sweden and at international festivals in Rome, Paris and Amsterdam, among others. Johan also performs as a solo storyteller in festivals around the world. In March 2023 he will debut as a storyteller in French at a storytelling festival for children 2-5 years old in Martinique.
In an experiential storytelling session we enter the world where not even the birds fly, our souls dimensions connecting with the collective knowledge.
The Hungarian story of the iron headed wolf will let us reflect on the questions: what addiction is, what it means on a personal level, how the boy/hero gets through the life threatening negative powers, how can we follow his example etc. Are there transgenerational patterns that function as a survival mechanism? Do we recognise where we are? Do we know about how to overcome?
As the folktales know, because they each life recipes for all the kinds of breakdowns, that humanity has ever experienced.
In this workshop, we will run through a Hungarian folktale to feel, sense, understand the wisdom of the folktales regarding life. Regarding connecting to ourselves, others, animals, plants, and all the surrounding Universe.
Bio
I am Szabó Enikő, storyteller and folktale therapist. I have been telling stories since my childhood, this being my family's survival method I learned and inherited the role of storyteller for life. I tell stories to children and adults and have organised a Storytelling Festival since 2016.
Since 2011, I have also been working as a therapist, but this also is a kind of storytelling. My university studies are in the field of psychology, pedagogy,and special needs education of children and adults in Romania’s and Hungary’s best universities. I also have post graduate qualifications, as a mental health specialist. However I will define myself always, as a storyteller and story therapist.
This lecture presents the volunteer storytelling program of the Világszép Foundation for Children in State Care. This program, initiated 7 years ago, uses oral storytelling as a way to connect with children and youth, support them emotionally while they are in the state care system, and provide them with the hope, acceptance, love, and attention that they often lack. Storytellers trained and vetted by Világszép visit state care homes on a weekly basis telling folktales, myths, and other traditional stories to children between the ages of 3 and 21.
This lecture describes the methodology of the storytelling program and the way storytelling sessions are conducted, as well as the selection and training process of the volunteer tellers. The Q & A session at the end aims to give practical advice to people who might want to bring storytelling into the state care system of their home country.
Bio
Dr. Csenge Virág Zalka is a professional storyteller and author from Hungary. She performs internationally in Hungarian, English, and Spanish. She holds an MA in Storytelling and a PhD in Culture Studies; her research focuses on the intersection of traditional stories and popular culture. She has published various folktale collections and storytelling guides in English and Hungarian. She currently lives in Budapest and works as the coordinator of the Világszép Foundation’s storytelling program.
A few years ago I did a project for the Dutch police force. This project is a perfect example of how storytelling can be applied in order to improve/change organisations. That is why I want to apply to contribute to the FEST conference. I think a lot of people can learn, not only by what kind of storytelling we’d apply but in what way it helped the professionals to be more open about their professional boundaries (I’m good at chasing criminals but I feel to vulnerable to ask a victim how he/she is feeling).
Another inspiring factor is the way we’d set up our project. We included all the relevant perspectives:
- The perspective of the victims themselves;
- The perspective of the police force (individual professionals);
- Victims from within the organisation (policeman/women who suffer from their professional environment. For example racism or bullying within the police force).
- Strategic stakeholders (partnering organisations).
With all these perspectives at hand we could see a relation between how police dealt with their own people as they dealt with victims of crimes.
Bio
As a storyteller- consultant I help public organisations in the Netherlands for over 12 years to use the perspective of the public/inhabitants to improve services. This started with my own experience with public services. As a young single mom I was highly depended on government aid. But there were a lot of ‘impossibilities’ I bumped into. Most civil servants wanted to make an exception but the ‘system’ always seemed to get in the way. As a student Public Administration I found the mission to help public organizations and civil servants to help their inhabitants in a better and more fulfilling way. Therefore all of my projects start with stories. Stories of inhabitants with an experience related to the specific public organization I work for. A story is a much stronger vehicle for change than feedback. It shows organizations what the impact of decisions is on peoples lives. It also helps the professionals to open up more about why they ended up doing this job in the first place. Or to open up the conversation that they don’t naturally have with each other. While using stories, I help people in organizations to connects with their professional roots and give way to the undiscussed. In my practice of change management I discovered that it is essential to connect people on an emotional level with the subject that needs changing. Therefore storytelling is such an important tool for me. I plea for structural change, one story at a time. My mission is not over yet!
In the Fairytale studio storytellers, pedagogues, development psychologists, illustrators, and designers are joined to develop a firm storytelling methodology and storytelling tools to be used in kindergartens and schools. After the Covid time teachers are reporting a decrease in reading and verbal skills of children. Fairy tale studio has been trying to answer this need with a peaceful time and place for emphatic and creative storytelling in the classroom. Together with the teachers, we have been developing methodology, contents, and storytelling tools for the last five years to be used with kids' groups by storytellers and teachers on everyday basis.
We have developed a box of storytelling tools (storytelling dice and a fairy tale map to be put to market and available for schools in 2023); a pop-up Fairy tale studio as a movable space for storytelling (with storytelling objects like a light table and a fairy tale cupboard); various short- and long-term workshops for kids of all ages and educational training for teachers. After five years of work, the results are showing that besides supporting verbal and reading skills, narrative thinking, and active listening, our storytelling work with kids can also create a more emphatic environment in the classroom.
Bio
In the Fairytale studio storytellers, pedagogues, development psychologists, illustrators, and designers are joined to develop a firm storytelling methodology and storytelling tools to be used in kindergartens and schools. After the Covid time teachers are reporting a decrease in reading and verbal skills of children. Fairy tale studio has been trying to answer this need with a peaceful time and place for emphatic and creative storytelling in the classroom. Together with the teachers, we have been developing methodology, contents, and storytelling tools for the last five years to be used with kids' groups by storytellers and teachers on everyday basis.
We have developed a box of storytelling tools (storytelling dice and a fairy tale map to be put to market and available for schools in 2023); a pop-up Fairy tale studio as a movable space for storytelling (with storytelling objects like a light table and a fairy tale cupboard); various short- and long-term workshops for kids of all ages and educational training for teachers. After five years of work, the results are showing that besides supporting verbal and reading skills, narrative thinking, and active listening, our storytelling work with kids can also create a more emphatic environment in the classroom.
In Flanders there is a growing political and educational concern about less reading skills and less reading motivation of children and youngsters. The solution that the authorities and educationalists present is more reading, more texts more exercises about written literature. But can we honestly wait till all children are able to read for themselves or till they feel like taking up a book voluntarily, to get them in touch with fantasy, stories, fiction, new ways and worlds...? I think that we need more than one way to enhance these aims.
As an experienced storyteller for many years I believe there are multiple options of presenting stories to kids and stimulating them to enjoy it. More than once I saw the so-called less academically successful or sometimes less focused children and youngsters keenly participate in storytelling sessions. Often to the pleasant surprise of their teachers. In the scientific literature about the effects of fiction, authors use the term of ‘narratives’. A way broader approach to texts than written literature. Narratives include comics in newspapers, audiobooks, films, series on Netflix, daily talks on the playground etc. And also oral storytelling. The key of success to the positive effects of fiction is ‘getting into the story’.
In my presentation I want to talk about why and how oral storytelling can play an important role in building a bridge between finding fun in listening and participating in oral storytelling on the one hand and stimulating curiosity and fun in reading books on the other. Connected to policies in reading education, scientific literature on the topic and my own experience as a storyteller in diverse contexts. Furthermore this may also be useful to try and change the opinion that storytelling is only for young children and not for teenagers or adults. A tendency I notice growing in Flanders.
Bio
Fresh, Fruity and Veerle
Veerle Ernalsteen has been telling stories for more than 20 years. Playfull and with a twist. Sensual and romantic. Dark and quirky. With humour and relating to the audience. She especially loves old and nearly forgotten versions of European stories and tellings from around the Mediterranean: always a mixture of different styles and origins, mostly a combination especially for the occasion. Her stories may be ancient but she tells them for an audience from here and now. Recognisable for everyone, even the words in an unknown language. Join in and have fun. If you want one more, no problem, Veerle knows loads.
FEST and Meseszó Association in cooperation with Csűrdöngölő Cultural Association have the pleasure to invite the international storytelling to the annual FEST conference 2023 in Veszprém, Hungary on June 14 – 17. We are in the process of putting together the programme and we are looking for interesting contributions from storytellers and representatives of storytelling organisations from Europe and beyond to create a rich and relevant programme!
Prices
Full conference pass - prices include conference entrance and meals.
| Conference pass FEST-members | €210 |
| Conference pass non-members | €260 |
Conference pass - Local participants
| Conference pass - no meals | €75 |
| Conference pass with lunch - no dinners | €100 |
Registration
Registrations for the FEST 2023 Conference in Veszprèm open on January 2nd 2023 and stay open untill May 14th.
Cancellation
Cancellation free of charges until 14th of May 2022
Cancellation after this date, a fee equal to 50% of the reserved arrangement will be charged and you will receive a 50% refund.
If the cancellation is made less than 14 days prior to the scheduled start date, a fee of 100% of the reserved arrangement will be charged, no refund.
Past Conferences
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FEST CONFERENCE 2019 – Euregio Maas-Rhein (Netherlands)
The 2019 FEST Conference is a place for storytellers and organisations to meet exchange and share on different themes that touch the oral storytelling community. In Kerkrade we will lead you through a series of workshops and lectures about tales and science, the trickster through Europe, storytelling and digital arts.
Read More -
FEST CONFERENCE 2018 – Ljubljana (Slovenia)
The 2018 FEST Conference is a place for storytellers and organisations to meet exchange and share on different themes that touch the oral storytelling community. This year we’ll lead you through a series of lectures and workshops concerning storytelling and heritage in the Balkans, Storytelling as a performing art in contemporary theatre, storytelling and digital arts.
Read More
