The 2025 Kansas Storytelling Festival ended Saturday night in Downs, Kansas with a Grand Finale by Pippa White, Ed Stivender and Michael D. McCarty. After 2 days of stories, songs and fun, the crowd gathered at the quilt lined Memorial Hall to bid farewell to another great event. During the festival, Pippa White, known for her stories: “Voices from Ellis Island” and “Story of the Orphan Train”, presented stories of Women’s Suffrage, and Memories from the Titanic. Ed Stivender has been telling stories professionally for 48 years and had the audience rolling with his “Raised Catholic” stories and banjo playing. Michael D. McCarty closed the evening with a folktale from Haiti that had the crowd yelling “YOWWW… as loud as they could to describe a man’s favorite food.
The Festival opened Friday afternoon with Priscilla Howe and Ed Stivender entertaining more than 120 local grade school students and other attendees. This was Priscilla’s fourth time at the Kansas Festival and she brought out her puppet “Trixie” to entertain the audience. During the festival, Priscilla told Brother’s Grimm fairy tales and led a workshop on how to tell stories to young children.
Friday night’s concert began with the annual Tall Tales Contest. Competitors Greg McGlynn (Sterling, KS); Peter Browning (Salina, KS); Larry Temple (Elyria, KS) and defending champion Rich White (Blue Springs, MO) all spun outrageous tales to the amusement of the audience. When the audience votes and the judge’s scoring were all tabulated, Rich White was awarded the travelling trophy – a shovel. With this 3rd Tall Tales win, Rich is now retired from the competition and awarded the title “Kansas Master Storyteller”.
Concurrent story sessions were presented Friday afternoon and all-day Saturday at 4 different venues. Paul Strickland from Cincinnati, Ohio encouraged the audience to laugh and sing-along as he presented “Lies at 90 miles per hour” and other tall tales. Paul also told some ghost stories late Friday night. Two sessions included “The Legends”, stories of historically important local individuals like Major Downs and a schoolteacher composite, and this year included Eugene Cameron, telling native American legends. Four of the five Kansas Master Storytellers entertained the audience with stories and then created an ad-lib story using suggestions from the audience.
Cell phones and electronic devices were set aside for 2 days and attendees of the 2025 Kansas Storytelling Festival enjoyed a variety of stories, songs, and poems by professional and amateur tellers. Downs, Kansas once again lived up to it’s moniker “The Storytelling Capital of Kansas” as declared by Kansas Governor Bill Graves in 1998. Festival goers came from all over Kansas and many states across the U.S. The KS Storytelling Festival is always held the last weekend of April. Join us next year on April 24-25, 2026.
