Every year since 1947, youth throughout the city of Tampa have committed stories to heart. Were you one of those tellers? If so, we are looking for you!

2010 marks the 30^th year of the Festival and the 62^nd year of storytelling in City Recreation centers. The Festival in April 2000 included an anniversary celebration, with Alumni Tellers involved.

If you participated as a youth storyteller in Tampa area playgrounds and recreation centers since 1947 or in the Storytelling Festival since 1980 (or know someone who has) please call Jody Wren at (813) 931-2106 or e-mail info@tampastory.org.

For over twenty years, the Tampa-Hillsborough County Storytelling Festival has presented a unique cultural event which enables children and adults to participate in the ancient art of storytelling.

The Festival has its roots in storytelling competitions that began over fifty years ago in City of Tampa Recreation playgrounds. In 1980, Tampa Recreation and the Tampa-Hillsborough County Public Library collaborated to create the Tampa-Hillsborough County Storytelling Festival in order to provide children and their families with a city-wide forum which would recognize storytelling as an art form and provide outstanding national storytellers to be models who would inspire young people to excellence. The children were no longer competing in a contest but were striving to achieve Festival Quality status. Over the years a host of businesses and non-profit agencies have become staunch [topic:sponsors supporters] of this Festival.

In 2000, the Homecoming 2000 Festival was a free, week-long celebration of storytelling. We celebrated stories that have been enjoyed for 50 years on Tampa playgrounds and for 20 years in Hillsborough County through a partnership between libraries, recreation centers and schools that has benefited both children and adults. The culmination of the week was the Twentieth Annual Tampa-Hillsborough County Storytelling Festival on April 15, 2000.

We hope you were able to attend this fun-filled family event. The Festival featured nationally known and Grammy Award winning storyteller and musician David Holt, Twice Upon a Time (Festival Alumnae Kim Rivers and musician Nancy Crockford) as well as local and regional professional tellers and hundreds of Festival Quality Youth Storytellers.

If you are a teacher, librarian, or youth leader and would like more information on how the children you work with can be part of this Festival next year, see the particpant information, call our Festival Hotline at (813) 931-2106, or e-mail us at info@tampastory.org