Storyteller Riikka Palonen and folk musician Richard Clarke bring their Fenno-Baltic origin story show, which opened the Scottish International Storytelling Festival in 2025.
Of Stars, Bears and the Beginning of Time comes to Cornerstone St John's on Saturday 31 October, a one-night-only return to Edinburgh. It's a storytelling performance by Finnish-born storyteller Riikka Palonen, accompanied by folk musician Richard Clarke. The two of them take the stage together, with Palonen's storytelling and Clarke's music running side by side throughout.
The show is a journey through the celestial origin stories of the Fenno-Baltic tradition — the myths from the north that explain how the stars, the bears and the beginning of time itself came to be. It's not a new piece; it opened the Scottish International Storytelling Festival back in 2025, and this is its one-night return for this year. The festival is run by TRACS (Traditional Arts and Culture Scotland), which works with Scotland's shared traditions of craft, dance, music and storytelling — what they call the country's Intangible Cultural Heritage. This year's theme is 'Bird & Beast', and this particular show fits right into that, with its focus on the animals of the night sky.
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It's a performance for ages 12 and over, so it's fine for families with older children. There's also a bring-your-own-bottle policy for over-18s, and the venue provides plastic cups. The show runs from 7 pm to 8 pm — about an hour in total — with doors opening at 6.15 pm. You'll find Cornerstone St John's at the Cornerstone Centre on Lothian Road, EH2 4BJ, and you enter from Lothian Road.
