Lamby and I spent Easter weekend storytelling at Liverpool’s Food and Drink Festival. This event is normally held in September but Spring seems a good time to have a food festival. Afterall, plants, vegetables and crops are all starting to grow again after winter. So when SK Events http://www.skevents.co.uk/ approached me and asked if I would like to provide storytelling for their new Easter event, I was delighted. So here’s what happened…
When Easter Sunday dawned it’s fair to say it did not look promising. A fine drizzle, the kind that soaks you like a silent assassin covered Liverpool. Although I had a Gazebo on stand by the weather forecasts had promised dry and fine and I for one was prepared to believe them.
I packed Buttercup my vintage van with my props, signs and Lamby of course and off we set minus the Gazebo. Being Britain, there had been rain a couple of days earlier. This had coincided with the arrival of the porta-loos and marquees for the event. This, of course, meant that much of the site resembled a mud pit. Now I have every faith in my trusty 40 year old van but even I didn’t fancy her chances against the mud. Even new and shiny 4X4’s had been struggling.
Luckily the SK staff were on hand to guide me onto the site avoiding the worst patches of mud as we went. Buttercup’s home for the next two days was in the heart of the Children’s Zone next to Family Go Live http://www.familygolive.com/ and the Lost Children Tent. Having parked up, it was time to set out our Storytelling area. And here it is
As you can see, it was pretty overcast. Luckily by the time the gates had opened to the public, the sun had come out and Lamby had even got hot enough to remove his coat.
And so to the actual storytelling. I always select a range of stories that link to a theme the client has chosen. This time the theme was obviously…food (don’t faint with shock!) This is a great topic so my story tin was loaded with objects that related to stories all about food. There were classics such as The Gingerbread Man and The Enormous Turnip as well as some stories from around the world including the Hungry Monkey from South America. Plus there were a couple I’d made up myself.
Over the two days it became clear that there were some firm favourites amongst the children. These were
- The Gingerbread Man
- Jack and the Beanstalk
- The Hungry Crocodile (one I made up)
- We’re Going on an Easter Egg Hunt
