Great Malvern Festival of Stories returns with world famous line-up

World-renowned animators and storytellers will soon bring popular children's characters to life with the return of an exciting festival in Great Malvern.

The Great Malvern Festival of Stories for Children takes place from Tuesday, 24 October, to Sunday 29 October 2023, in a number of venues throughout Great Malvern, including Great Malvern Priory grounds, Lyttleton Well, Malvern Cube, and inside the belly of a whale!

The festival, formed by Malvern Hills District Council in partnership with Boffy Arts and Events, is a celebration of stories, featuring a programme of professional storytellers, children's authors, illustrators, puppet companies, musicians, and theatre.

The event, now in its second year, will feature workshops from academy award winning animation filmmakers Aardman, creators of Wallace and Gromit, and Horrid Henry author Francesca Simon, introducing her latest book.

The first four days of this year's programme is designed for local schools, followed by a family programme on Saturday and Sunday, which is open to everyone.

This year's festival includes the introduction of a day for Secondary Schools where Carnegie Medal winning Tanya Landman, the author of over forty books for children and young adults will be visiting The Chase and Dyson Perrins High Schools.

As well as ticketed events there are free storytelling sessions, art activities, film screenings and stalls by local authors across the whole weekend.

The programme also includes:

• Free film screening of Shaun the Sheep and Feathers McGraw.
• Theatre show in the belly of an enormous inflatable whale, with puppets, comedy and music.
• Aardman model making workshops.
• Sing-along event with Paul Linnet one-half of the hit creators of the Supertato series.
• Sparkling storytelling adventures and live drawing with award-winning author-illustrator Lydia Monks.
• Authors James Carter, Matt Goodfellow and Jasbinder Bilan.
• Storytellers Amy Douglas, Sally Tonge and Katy Cawkwell.
• Live Puppetry from Clive Chandler, Fetch Theatre and Indigo Moon.
• And much more!

Cllr Beverley Nielsen, Portfolio Holder for Tourism and Economic Development at Malvern Hills District Council, said: "We are so pleased this event is returning, there is a fantastic line-up this year full of fun and creativity for the whole family to enjoy. I'd like to thank all those involved including our MHDC team, Steve Boffy and his team, as well as our corporate sponsors for helping to make this special event possible for the second year running."

Steve Boffy, from Boffy Arts Events People, said: "I was delighted with the success of last year's festival and the brilliant response it received. I am now looking forward to building on that success and hope to develop the festival and see it become a much-loved annual fixture in the local cultural calendar".

Supporting the festival this year are local businesses Charles Faram & Co Ltd, Lucart Hygiene Ltd, HD Anywhere and Spellar Metcalfe Ltd.

Visit www.visitthemalverns.org/storyfest for more information and to book tickets.