On Sept. 15-16 Wilmore hosted their sixth annual More Tales, Bringing Appalachia to the Bluegrass Storytelling Festival at the Wilmore Municipal Center.
This festival is a free event hosting six different storytellers. Each storyteller has a 45 minute time-slot to share their tale with the audience of Wilmore. Most of the performances were strictly spoken-word, but two of the acts involved music.
Paul Strickland and The Barely Shaken String Band were two artists who told their stories through music. Although the String Band was a musical act with some spoken word, Strickland’s stories were spoken with just a little taste of song and guitar.
Laura Packer, the only female storyteller present for this year’s festival, brought us into her story with an interactive experience, including having the audience help her tell her tale with hand gestures to go along with her characters.
Bil Lepp took a more comedic approach: he told a story that brought out countless laughs from the audience and kept attention throughout his entire act.
More Tales features amazing storytellers, most of whom have won awards for things like “Best of Fest” (Strickland) at Fringe Theatre Festivals, the WV Liar’s Contest (Lepp), and more.
Next years More Tales Storytelling Festival will be held on the third weekend of September, where they will introduce the Biggest Liar Contest.