Storytale Festival Chapter 7

Storytale Festival returns to We The Curious on Saturday 24 and Sunday 25 October, Bristol's own celebration of children's literature. This is the seventh edition, titled Chapter 7, and it centres on perseverance — an appreciation of resilience, courage and determination explored through storytelling, creativity and imagination. The festival has been running since 2019, and this year's theme runs through the whole weekend.

Saturday is built around storytelling sessions, starting with Laura Henry-Allain MBE, followed by wildlife filmmaker Sam Hume sharing his Dangerous Animals Survival Guide. Sunday shifts to the Story Fair, a day of craft and story activities for children, teens and families. Author and illustrator Yasmeen Ismail leads a craft and story activity, and middle-grade author Gita Ralleigh takes children on an island adventure, with further sessions from Marcus Fagon, Cassandra Wye, Moniza Hossain and Asmaa Jama. The line-up mixes local authors, illustrators and creatives with names from beyond the city, and the two days follow a long-running format: storytelling on Saturday, the Story Fair on Sunday.

Alongside the festival, Storytale has launched a crowdfunder to arrange author visits in up to ten Bristol schools, aiming to raise £5,000 by 9 November. The money goes towards books, workshops and a fair fee for authors, and also adds books to school libraries. It's a separate project running alongside the main weekend, so you can support that too if you're keen.

Tickets for the festival start from £4-9, and Sunday Story Fair tickets from £3. You'll find the whole thing at We The Curious, One Millennium Square, Anchor Road, Harbourside, Bristol, BS1 5DB.