It's storytime for all

Confluence 2011, a three-day storytelling festival, will bring together twelve storytellers for those who love folklore

Spend the weekend away from the city in the company of folklore. Confluence 2011, the second edition of a traveling storytelling conference will hit town and give you more than a earful of tales.
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Started with the purpose of uniting storytellers from tribal communities to share and exchange experiences, this confluence is conducted by Acoustic Traditional (AT).


Storytelling Confluence 2010

Founded by Salil Mukhia Kwoiche Lo and Barkha Henry in 1999, AT was initially started as a classroom-based project in Nepal to document and archive mountain music. "After years of performing stories, we realised there were no folklore-based organisations," says Salil, a storytelleru00a0 from the Eastern Himalayan region.
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"Our focus was on storytelling and the oral medium alone, especially stories coming from mountain and forest communities," he adds. It was last year with the first edition of the storytelling confluence conducted in Gangtok, Sikkim that AT took its present shape.

The motive of the festival essentially is to revive the lost art of storytelling.


Abimaya, a storyteller

Spanning three days, twelve story tellers will congregate in a live-in program for interactions, storytelling sessions, skill sharing, documenting and other activities. A small window of these shows that include performances by the storytellers will be open to the public on two out of the three days.

While nine of the storytellers belong to tribal communities across the country, two open storytellers will be part of the confluence - , Mumbai-based puppeteer Usha Venkatraman and and Tim Bowley, a UK-based professional
storyteller.

This edition of the Confluence will also include traditional rituals being performed. "On both days, we will start with rituals native to the mountain regions including Building the Fire, an earth ritual and Remembering the
Spirits, a ritual that involves seeking permission from the mountain gods to tell the stories as they are considered sacred," says Salil.


Bhutia, a storyteller Kabi Lung Chok

Unlike the first edition, that, he admits turned out to look and feel academic, this one is planned in an open air setting with a more casual feel.

Though participating storytellers are required to register in advance, the audience canu00a0 decide to attend the live-in program depending on the availability of
accommodation.

Highlights
Workshop by Eric Miller, Director, World Storytellingu00a0Instituteu00a0
Storytelling by Kachyo Nepcha who belongs to the Lepchau00a0u00a0community of Sikkim and will be presenting some rareu00a0u00a0stories that are on the verge of extinction.
Puppeteer Usha Venkatraman's performance
Tim Bowley's storytelling session

Where Fireflies, Kanakpura Road
On October 1 and 2, 1 pm to 5 pm
Call 6571280
For Rs 800 inclusive of refreshments