FLORENCE – Front-porch sittin’.
Sweet-tea sippin’.
Neighbors stoppin’ by to say ‘hey’.
That’s the vibe that the Shoals Storytelling Festival evokes each year: Neighbors and friends swappin’ tales.
The Shoals Storytelling Festival, listed among the Top 20 Events in the Southeast, began in 2011 as the Front Porch Storytelling Festival and was originally hosted at the University of North Alabama.
In 2017, the Festival moved to the historic Shoals Theatre in downtown Florence, and was renamed The Shoals Storytelling Festival, acknowledging its home in the Shoals: Florence, Muscle Shoals, Sheffield, and Tuscumbia.
The Quad Cities is an area rich in history, stories, and music, and it’s the birthplace of Helen Keller and W.C. Handy, and the home of FAME Studios and the Muscle Shoals Sound Studio.
This year’s event marks the festival’s 13th anniversary and, lucky for you, it will be held once again at the Shoals Theatre in Florence from May 16-18. As you plan your visit this year, learn more about the historic venue at www.theshoalstheatre.org and about the culturally rich Shoals area at visitflorenceal.com.
Now on to the stories.
May 17 features Dolores Hydock “In Her Own Fashion.” These are stories of career disasters, celebrity encounters, war, peace, and reckless romance, all based on the life of Alabama fashion icon Ninette Griffith, a sassy, ambitious, independent woman who, at age 95, was ready to tell all.
Hydock continues her tales May 18 with “Tony Curtis Speaks Italian and All I Can Say is ‘I Love You’.” Two friends. One year. A VW beetle, three French children, and the White Cliffs of Dover – they all show up in this true story of friendship, feeling foreign, and finding your way home. What if you could meet your 19-year-old self again? A review in the The Birmingham News called it “ … funny and touching, smart and insightful, personal and universal.”
Tickets are on sale now and you can purchase yours by visiting this link and scrolling down to May 16. Prices range from $20 for May 16 to $50 for all day May 17 or May 18, to $70 for a full three-day pass.
The weekend’s lineup can be found on the Shoals Storytelling Festival website here.
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