Bay Area Storytelling Festival 2026
Now Streaming Tickets on Sale!
Experience the magic of the 35th Bay Area Storytelling Festival.
Celebrate the vibrant art of storytelling. Our nationally acclaimed featured tellers – Andy Offutt Irwin, Motoko and Jasmin Cardenas - enchant and entertain with tales from their diverse backgrounds and traditions. Don’t miss their award-winning storytelling, as they bring this ancient art to life for modern audiences. Enjoy this full day of story concerts, a workshop, a Storytelling Association of California Showcase.
Your Now Streaming ticket lets you watch the Festival at your own pace and on your own schedule. Hold your own "Festival Day," or watch it in sessions, at your own pace. Ticket sales will end May 31st, and you have until August 31st to stream.
Individual tickets are $30, or gather your friends and host your own Festival with a "Festival Party" ticket for $50.00.
Become a Friend of the Festival sponsor, and we'll send you a Festival Badge, a Festival Program signed by each of the featured tellers and a souvenir Bay Area Storytelling Festival Notebook. It's perfect for writing down all of your story ideas! The recordings are separated by session, so you don't have to scroll through the entire day to find the concert you want to view.
To view the Schedule for the Festival, please click HERE.
Thank you for supporting storytelling.
Now Streaming Tickets on Sale!
The Festival is thrilled to welcome these internationally known artists:
Andy Offutt Irwin
With a manic, Silly Putty voice, hilarious, heart-filled stories, and amazing mouth noises, (arguably the greatest whistler in the world), Andy Offutt Irwin has been described as “The Marx Brothers meet Eudora Welty.” Irwin is a keynote speaker, theater director, songwriter, comedian, newspaper columnist, and Shakespearian actor. His appearances have taken him across the U.S., including the Library of Congress and Walt Disney World. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the NSN ORACLE Circle of Excellence and a Special Congressional Recognition from Rep. John Lewis for “outstanding and invaluable service to the community.”
Motoko
Award winning Japanese storyteller, Motoko, has enchanted audiences of every age with Asian folktales, Rakugo and Zen tales, ghost stories, mime vignettes, as well as oral memoirs from her childhood in Osaka and her life as an immigrant in the U.S. She is the recipient of the National Storytelling Network’s 2017 Circle of Excellence Award. Motoko’s storytelling recordings have won a Parents’ Choice Silver Honor Award, a Storytelling World Award, and a National Parenting Publications Award. She trained with master mime Tony Montanaro (1927-2002) and renowned Appalachian storyteller Elizabeth Ellis.
Jasmin Cardenas
Jasmin Cardenas is a Colombian-American actress, theatermaker, educator, and social activist based in Chicago. She is a SAG-AFTRA member with credits in television and film. Cardenas is known for her work in Chicago's theater community, including Steppenwolf and Goodman theaters. She co-founded WorkersTEATRO to highlight wage worker stories and has been recognized for her storytelling, including a 2018 ALTA Award and a Race Bridges Storytelling Fellowship. Her one-woman show, ¿Niña Buena?, explores her experiences as a Latina American and has toured in the Midwest and Mexico. She was also awarded a 2020-2022 LAB Fellowship, was selected to be the 2022 World Theatre Day U.S. Emergent Theater Artist, and received the 2023 USArtists International MidAtlantic Arts Grant to tour to Zimbabwe and South Africa.
Teller Submissions
Click HERE for information about how to submit a teller application.
"Once upon a time, in the land of hills and water and bridges, there lived a band of local folk who loved storytelling. They loved to hear tales told and to tell tales of their own. This society of storytellers traveled far and wide to gather together with the multitudes and be regaled with stories of all kinds.
One day, an idea was hatched. Why not bring the stories to their very own shire? Their land was pleasing to the eye and had many who would enjoy hearing and telling stories. And so it began, a Festival in the West, a gathering that grew and grew. What started as a day grew to three and what began as a first became thirty Festivals over many, many years. Word spread of the event and soon crowds from throughout the land, from all directions, came to hear and to learn from the greatest of the bards.
The society of storytellers was pleased as the festival grew beyond their wildest dreams. But, alas, the society eventually grew weary, as the festival required the work of many and at times there were only a few. There came a day when the festival bid adieu to the land of hills and water and bridges. The group was pleased with what they had done,but could no longer carry the torch onward.
Then, darkness fell upon the land and the people were made to stay in their homes, to cover their faces and could gather together o more. Stories were still told, but tellers were distant and spoke to the people from small windows, while the folk sat in their homes. This went on for some time and the people grew restless. Slowly, after a year and many months, the darkness started to lift. The folk ventured out of their abodes and the tellers stepped out of their rectangular confinement.
It was at this moment, while caught up in the joy of the fading darkness, that a certain storytelling lass decreed, “Let us bring back the festival!” The cry was echoed throughout the land and soon plans were afoot to once again assemble in the West. It was decided to gather in the spring, at a manor in the village known as Orinda.
And so the story continues..."