FEAST (Federation of Asian Story Tellers) Conference

When my friend and colleague, Anna Manuel of Heads and Tales Story Services and I decided to pitch a couple of workshops to the FEAST conference in Bengaluru, we didn’t expect that both would be accepted.

Passionate kamishibai storytellers, we presented our favourite Kamishibai 101 workshop and equally passionate about language enrichment with oral storytelling enhanced with simple props like paper and string and body percussion, we offered Nearly Naked Storytelling.

The two day conference ticked over like a Swiss watch. The venue was perfect. Taking place in the Chancery Hotel where participants were residing, the staff could not have been more supportive.

To my delight the hotel was also located near Cubbon Park, 300 hectares of green, full of wildlife. Hard to see in the photo but those trees are full of Indian Palm Squirrels chirping incessantly, the sky is thick with circling fork-tailed kites and darting ring-necked parrots. About 100 metres along this path there is a swampy patch thick with butterflies, dragonflies and bees.

My sincere thanks to the FEAST Conference committee for bringing this amazing gathering of storytellers together: India, Korea, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Italy, the UK, USA, Australia - apologies if I’ve left any one out. Absolutely impossible task getting a photo of this riotous group of people - the talking never ceased!

The 2020 conference will be held in Indonesia.