PORT ANGELES — The tales came to an end at Peninsula College on Sunday afternoon, and for organizers, it was a happy ending.
“It’s been a really good year. Maybe the best year ever in terms of attendance,” said Christy Wright, president of Story People of Clallam County, which organized the 20th Forest Storytelling Festival that concluded Sunday afternoon.
Attendance was about 1,500 — about 15 percent greater than that at last year’s event, Wright said.
Most of the storytelling sessions were at or near capacity in the 250-seat college Little Theater, she said.
Friday and Saturday night events were sell-outs, thanks to the attendance of local residents.
On Sunday afternoon, the crowds were thinning as Canadian residents departed early to catch the MV Coho ferry back to Victoria.
At noon, storyteller Norm Brecke of Renton spun tales from his teenage years on the Oregon coast, entertaining a crowd of about 100 as the festival wound down.
The Forest Storytelling Festival is the largest of its kind in the Pacific Northwest, and many attended from Oregon as well as Canada, Wright said.
She said the Port Angeles-based event attracts national-level storytellers, some of the same names she sees at the national festival in Tennessee each year.
Wright said the group will start to plan for future events.
Story People hosts a Celtic concert in March and a liar’s contest in June.
The storytelling group meets on the second Tuesday of the month between September and June in the Raymond Carver Room of the Port Angeles Library, 2210 S. Peabody St.
The Story People’s meetings are free and include storytelling clinics to help newcomers, Wright said.
Many of the Story People are older, so teenage and young adult storytellers are encouraged to attend meetings and share their own tales to keep the tradition going, Wright said.
Events held by the Story People are organized for adults, she said, but some Story People activities include trips to local elementary schools to share the storytellers’ joy of spinning a tale with the kids.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5070, or at arwyn.rice@peninsuladailynews.com.
