The Gathering
Storytelling, Talks, Workshops
Every other year the SfS arranges The Gathering – an in-person get-together of talks, workshops and storytelling. It’s a wonderful opportunity for story lovers to meet, mingle, share yarns, reconnect with old friends and build new ones. It’s also a great time to find out what the SfS has planned for the coming year.
The Gathering 2026 - A Celebration of Cultures
The SfS Gathering 2026 was held on the evening of Friday 4th September and all day Saturday 5th September 2026 at St John’s Church, Waterloo, London.
We were joined by our special guests: Patron Taffy Thomas, MBE and Doris Harper Wills, who led us in the theme for the weekend, ‘A Celebration of Cultures’.
Download The Gathering 2026 Programme
The Gathering 2024 - Liverpool University Creative Campus
The Gathering 2024 - featured Young & emerging Storytellers
The last SfS Gathering 2024 was held at Liverpool Hope University – Creative Campus from the evening of Friday 30th August – Sunday 1st September. It was a wonderful weekend filled with stories, chat, great food and friendship with many new faces and familiar ones.
Thank you to everyone who came in person or connected online, volunteered, ran sessions and joined in. The on-site University staff were also a brilliant team who supported us.
Our key-note address was presented by international storyteller and author Xanthe Gresham-Knight who delivered an outstanding presentation which you can DOWNLOAD here. We had a plethora of young storytellers with featured performances from Iris Skipworth, Gwion Macsen Baglin and Ffion Phillips.
Iris is a two times National Storytelling Champion, and co-founder of Manchester-based storytelling club ‘Sting in the Tale’. Gwion Macsen is a young storyteller from Flintshire in North Wales who won the under 15s Young Storyteller of Wales competition twice. Ffion is a regular at Chapter Arts Storytelling circle in Cardiff and has performed their show Hear us and Hasten across Wales and Scotland at Beyond the Border, Glasgow’s Village Storytelling Festival, the Felin Uchaf Centre and the Edinburgh Fringe.
The SfS is proud to support oral storytelling and storytellers by creating this opportunity for us all to meet, gather, discuss and tell stories.
The Gathering 2023 - The Folk of Gloucester
After a short hiatus during the pandemic, we were delighted to bring back The Gathering in 2023 for a weekend in the fabulous Tudor setting at The Folk of Gloucester. The venue staff and volunteers all helped to make the weekend a great success. We had a brilliant turnout, with amazing feedback from attendees.
“Thanks to all the organisers for their hard work on putting this enjoyable event on.”
“The AGM felt lively and positive. Full of hope and potential.”
“I loved the atmosphere of the venue, the intimacy, the querkiness, the differing size of the rooms..”
Be part of the Society of Storytelling
Whether you are joining or rejoining our Society, we hope you will gain a number of positives from it, not least the chance to interact with fellow Tellers and enthusiasts but also opportunities to participate on collaborations beyond the initial brief of storytelling.