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Midsummer Mythos: An Enchanted Day of Storytelling
June 21 @ 12:00 pm – June 22 @ 12:00 pm
We’d love for you to join us around the solstice hearth for a celebration of midsummer mythology and ancient tales in a tucked-away corner of the beautiful Kilnsey Park Estate. Together we’ll weave an incantation of shared poetry, story, song and art.
Bring your inner mythic being and favourite fireside tale!
We’ll be delving into the old legends of Nidderdale and Wharfedale. We’ll be telling tales of ancient gods in new guises. There’ll be experiments in woodland illumination, shared story, songs and soundscapes, with a dash of improvised wyrdness.
Among the artists and performers contributing to your expected enchantment, we’re excited to welcome Crab & Bee, bringing us paintings, performance and readings from ‘Crab & Bee’s Matter of Britain, Mythlands of Albion’. This collection of folk stories overheard in pubs, found on village noticeboards, and whispered through the landscape itself, was gathered from Helen Billinghurst and Phil Smith’s travels across the UK.
“In the Matter of Britain, Crab and Bee appear to have casually gathered up the folk consciousness of Britain, laughed at it, stamped on it, and lovingly restored it to our modern landscape…
You will know many of these characters, and yet meet them for the first time. This is a folk masterpiece.“
Lisa Schneidau - oral storyteller and author of ‘The Folk Tales of Britain & Ireland’ series
By return, we’ll be sharing some of our local folklore with Crab & Bee… and introducing ‘Old Tongues for New Forks‘, a collaborative project exploring reconnection with the landscape through old forgotten verse.
Come at noon for some opening fun and a relaxed afternoon of performance and poetry. In the evening we’ll break bread, and share stories around the Solstice hearth. At dusk, an illuminated trail will invite you to cross the veil, where the spirits of the Woodland and the Spring will share their own tales. As the sun sets, we’ll whisper hope in fireside harmonies, gently sung to each other and the land.
The Logistics…
This is a one-day gathering with optional overnight camping.
For maximum magic, come and set up your camp on Saturday morning and we’ll start a relaxed afternoon of daft shenanigans at around 1pm.
There’ll be a shared evening meal of Liam’s famous chilli (vegan and meat varieties) and tea/coffee on tap, but but you’ll need to bring your own drinks, snacks and Sunday morning breakfast.
Numbers are limited to 30-40 friends and performers. We’re not selling tickets (there’ll be a bucket for small ‘pay as you can’ contributions to camping), but your RSVP really matters to help us plan numbers.
We’d love to see your lovely faces in a field, round a fire. Let us know if you can come!
(You’ll also be helping me test this new website! Thanks!)
We would love to join you tomorrow x