Bhubaneswar: Bakul Foundation Sunday organised the third edition of the Children’s Storytelling Festival at the Bakul Library, showcasing the remarkable storytelling talents of children from across the city.
The event followed the Bakul Storytelling Festival held May 24, where children formed the audience while renowned adult storytellers took to the stage.
In contrast, the Children’s Storytelling Festival featured storytellers who were all children, making it perhaps the first storytelling festival in the country where every storyteller is a child.
Fifteen storytellers between the ages of 10 and 16 years, selected from different schools in Bhubaneswar, enthralled the audience with their performances.
The participants included students from DAV Public School, Unit VIII; DAV Public School, Chandrasekharpur; SAI International School; Loyola School; Unit IX Girls’ High School; and Mothers Public School, Unit I, which had the largest representation.
Speaking on the occasion, Sujit Mahapatra, Founder of Bakul Foundation, expressed pride in the achievement.
“It is a matter of great pride for all of us at Bakul that we have been able to organise a storytelling festival entirely with child storytellers.
When we organised the first storytelling event in Bhubaneswar, BhuFeSto or the Bhubaneswar Festival of Storytelling, as part of Dot Fest in 2018, most people were surprised by the idea because hardly anyone had attended a storytelling event before, and we struggled to find good storytellers.
Today, for the third year in a row, we have curated an event with child storytellers who are so accomplished that they are on par with mature adult storytellers,” he said.
