Scottish International Storytelling Festival 2025: Lights of the North Announced

The world’s largest storytelling festival returns this October with tales from Scotland and its northern neighbours.

The Scottish International Storytelling Festival will return from 22 October to 1 November, with a programme themed Lights of the North. For eleven days, storytellers from across Scotland will be joined by guests from Finland, Norway, Sweden, Iceland and Germany, presenting an arc of tales that travel the northern world while staying rooted in Scotland’s own traditions.

Organised by TRACS (Traditional Arts and Culture Scotland), the festival has grown into the world’s largest annual celebration of storytelling. It has long been more than a showcase.

TheQR’s past coverage has often described it as a crucible: a place where music, narrative, theatre and lived experience are fused into something larger than the sum of its parts. This year’s programme continues in that spirit, weaving myth, memory and modernity into a collective act of cultural exchange.

A Festival of Northern Voices

International guests include Finland’s Anna-Maria Toivonen, Norway’s Georgiana Keable Jerstad and Mimesis Heidi Dahlsveen, Hjörleifur Stefánsson from Iceland, Jerker Fahlström from Sweden, and Suse Weisse from Germany. Their stories span Viking sagas, Iceland’s hidden people, trolls, and the shadows of long northern winters.

**Anna-Maria Toivonen – Photo by Janne Peltonen**

Festival Director Donald Smith said: “I’m very inspired by the chemistry of this year’s programme. Northern stories come from the forests, mountains and oceans, while drawing on an eerie imagination, surreal humour and hidden connections between human and natural spirits. Inner and outer journeys collide with unexpected magic. And Scotland is a hub and a crucible of this unique northern brew!”

Festival Director Donald Smith said: “I’m very inspired by the chemistry of this year’s programme.

Scottish Stories, Old and New

The northern theme will be echoed by Scottish voices presenting new work alongside reimagined classics.

Highlights include:

Of Stars, Bears and the Beginning of Time (22 Oct): Riikka Palonen and folk musician Richard Clarke explore celestial origin stories from Fenno-Baltic tradition.

The People of the Sea (23 Oct): Ruth Kirkpatrick and Colin Urwin revisit David Thomson’s writings on selkie myths and coastal life.

Selkie: Past, Present, Future (24 Oct): Niall Moorjani and Ailsa Dixon offer three queered and reimagined selkie stories set across time.

Land of Many Waters (25 Oct): Eileen Budd, David McAlmont and Debbie Armour share stories of Scottish rivers and fragile ecosystems.

He Sits on the Rock of Joy (26 Oct): Linda Perttula and Aino Elina fuse memory, Finnish poetry and song.

Da Winters O Shetland (26 Oct): The ever- splendid Marjolein Robertson guides audiences through the humour and hardship of Shetland winters.

Gullrun’s Saga: A Viking Story (30 Oct): The superb Svend-Erik Engh and charming troubadour Neil Sutcliffe draw on Icelandic sagas in a new collaboration.

Elsewhere, storytellers will put their own spin on classic material: Claire Hewitt and Anna-Maria Toivonen will tell The Swan Woman; Mark Borthwick will revisit The War of the Birds; and Sarah Wedderburn-Ogilvy with collaborators will reimagine the forgotten tale of St Enoch in a Glasgow setting.

Travellers’ Tales

A defining strength of the festival has always been its platforming of Scotland’s Traveller community, whose oral traditions are central to the country’s storytelling heritage. This year Jess Smith and Jimmy Williamson will share stories passed down through generations, while Marion Kenny pays tribute to Duncan Williamson with The King and The Lamp.

The Alan Bruford lecture will turn its focus to Nackens — Scottish Gypsy Travellers — with author Robert Fell and storyteller Shamus McPhee exploring how folklore preserves history and place names. Piper Gary West, biographer of Martyn Bennett, will also lead a live event on the Traveller ballads and stories that shaped Bennett’s music.

The Dark Season

As autumn deepens, the festival turns towards the uncanny. The programme includes Daniel Serridge and Heather Cartwright on Cumbria’s haunted corpse roads; Anna Lehr with Dazwischen, a tale about death, birth and what lies between; and Beverley Bryant leading a workshop on mortality and ritual, complete with willow weaving. Suse Weisse, in partnership with the Goethe-Institut, will retell stories from the Brothers Grimm.

Culture Secretary Angus Robertson commented: “The fantastic programme for this year’s Scottish International Storytelling Festival features something for everyone and brings together stars of Scotland’s storytelling scene with our north Atlantic neighbours to give light to dark winter nights through mystical stories and songs.”

The timing overlaps with Edinburgh’s Samhuinn Fire Festival in Holyrood Park, reinforcing the connection between ancient ritual and living performance.

Stories for Families

Family events begin early, on 11 October, with workshops and performances across the October school holidays. Among the highlights are Fibi Cowley’s A Dispute with a Butterfly told through puppetry; Ailie Finlay’s sensory stories Tales of Cold Forests and Cosy Bears; and Tokyo-born step dancer Kae Sakurai’s BLOOM. Outdoor events return too, including the Botanics Storytelling Day and the reliably hilarious Macastory’s School for Skalds.

A ceilidh with the Minnow Ceilidh Band, dragon stories with Daiva Ivanauskaitė-Brown and Gaynor Barradell, and nature-inspired tales from Allison Galbraith will keep younger audiences at the heart of the festival.

Workshops and Emerging Voices

The festival’s workshop programme is designed for those who want to sharpen their craft. Sessions will cover everything from using BSL in performance to the role of music in storytelling, and from ethical questions around archive material to the integration of technology on stage.

New for 2025, three emerging storytellers will present works on themes of shame, consent and survival, in partnership with the Federation of European Storytelling. The inclusion reflects the festival’s growing role as a platform for younger voices, building continuity between traditions and the present.

Across Scotland

While the Storytelling Centre in Edinburgh remains the festival hub, more than 60 “Go Local” events will take place across the country, from East Lothian and Shetland to the Western Isles and Dumfries and Galloway. International guests will also perform in Glasgow, Kenmore, Aberfeldy and Dundee, as well as at festivals in Orkney, Aberdeen and Dumfries and Galloway.

The annual exhibition will feature work by illustrator and ceramicist Hester Aspland, whose art is steeped in folklore and landscape. Her illustrations also grace this year’s festival programme.

Support and Endorsement

The festival is backed by the Scottish Government’s Festivals EXPO Fund and Creative Scotland’s multi-year support. Culture Secretary Angus Robertson commented: “The fantastic programme for this year’s Scottish International Storytelling Festival features something for everyone and brings together stars of Scotland’s storytelling scene with our north Atlantic neighbours to give light to dark winter nights through mystical stories and songs.”

For storyteller Riikka Palonen, the event is both personal and symbolic: “This festival is a very special and exciting time for me — as a relatively recent arrival on these shores, I feel honoured to be able to present the stories from my homeland here in the land of my new home.”

Continuity and Change

Looking back on its coverage, theQR has often highlighted how SISF thrives when stories cross disciplines, cultures and generations. In 2024 the theme Bridges Between was more than metaphor – it became structural principle. In 2025, Lights of the North extends that same ambition along a different compass, asking how shared geographies and mythologies might bind communities together.

The result is a programme that feels at once timeless and urgent. As past reviews have suggested, the festival’s greatest successes lie in “full-body storytelling” – the seamless blend of music, memory, myth and lived experience. On this evidence, the Scottish International Storytelling Festival will remain a stage where such integration is not the exception, but the rule.

Featured Image: 10 Sep SISF Programme Launch L_R Donald Smith – Festival Director, Musician – Richard Clarke, Beverley Bryant – Chair of the Scottish Storytelling Forum, Riikka Palonen – Performer, Daniel Abercrombie – Head of Programming.