Udaipur Tales: An international storytelling festival to be held in Udaipur from 30th Nov

Storytelling is an intangible heritage. It is fascinating to see an oral tradition that carries history from one generation to the next.  With Udaipur Tales, there’s been a conscious effort of bringing in artists from places with strong storytelling traditions. Udaipur Tales, is one of its kind storytelling festival which takes place in the Venice of the East. A three day long, international platform, bringing together a variety of traditions - from folk ensemble to shamanic storytelling and dastangoi. The festival is in its second edition and is being held at Park Exotica, Opposite Shilpgram, Udaipur from 30th November to 2nd December 2018.

Through the duration of the festival, a whole range of traditional storytelling practices will be unveiled to the audiences through artists, authors and journalists from various parts of India and the world. This includes, renowned theater actors like Vipin Sharma, KC Shankar, Shashwita Sharma; journalist Shantanu Guha Ray, Faraz Khan, international artists like Stefan Kay, Durga Devi among other talent.

The Founders of the Udaipur Tales Sushmita Singha and Salil Bhandari confirmed about the 2nd edition of the Festival. Story tellers from London to Singapore to Jharkhand will be present for the festival. In Feb 2017, the first season of Udaipur Tales Storytelling Festival was organised in the city of Udaipur, Rajasthan, where storytellers from India and abroad came to the city of lakes to take the audience on a journey of tales from the present and the past. Some of the storytellers who performed were Fauzia Dastango, first Lady Danstango. Dastango or Dastangoi is a traditional Urdu/Persian style of storytelling that has existed in India for centuries. Fauzia is the first lady in India, or perhaps the world to have started telling tales in this style. Salil Mukhia Koitsu comes from the ancient Shaman tribe form Darjeeling who tells dark stories and stories that heal.  Nazdeeda and her troupe came all the from Moscow to sing Russian folk tales that were being told in English. 

The venue will be segregated into three stages, one is for the children (for which the entry is free on all 3 days) and the other two are for adults, programs for them are targeted towards the evening. The venue will also host an exhibition bazaar showcasing a wide range of artifacts, products and other hand crafted items. There will be a food gully as well to satiate the palette during the festival.