Beréttar Festival
by Sam Yada Cannarozzi

Southern Sweden near mid-summer 1996.

e flew into Copenhagen’s Kastrup International out of Paris, then hovercrafted across the sound to Sweden. A train and bus trip later we arrived in Ljungby, a middle-sized town in the Smaaland area of the peninsula and home to well-known children’s book author Astrid Lindgren.

The town itself has a rich history of its own: 8,000 year old stone-age implements were found here, there was a Viking settlement around the year 1000, and in 1335, a roadside inn was established by royal decree. But today, besides its ‘bonad’ or painted tapestry, Ljungby is known for hosting a week-long storytelling festival, the Beréttar Festival. Beréttar is Swedish for storyteller, and we were certainly numerous. This year’s theme was "Vérlden I Sverige"—"The World Comes to Sweden." The theme is a reference to the fact that one quarter of the population immigrated in the last century (many people to the United States); it also calls attention to the many people to whom Sweden has opened its doors.

Along with Scandinavia, artists, teachers, writers and researchers from other parts of Europe, North and South America, Africa and Asia were represented in the program. Workshops in paper clipping (an art dear to Hans Christian Andersen), origami, Greenlandic music and masked dance accompanied courses and seminars on all aspects of the storytelling art. In the following days Richard Sservwagi (Uganda) played djembe and kalimba, danced and sang his stories. Kam Raw (from the Kammu folk of Laos), narrated, hummed lullabies and sounded gongs for his son’s saber dance. Topooco (Bolivia) told myths to children. Lili (China) recited poetry and Margareta Larson (Sweden) was awarded the Michael i Laangholt prize for excellence in the field of living folklore. (Michael I Laangholt was a self-taught folklorist in the 19th century who died in abject poverty. He is personified by Per Gustavson, artistic director of the festival, in his Smaalands Sagor, Fairytales from Small Land.) And you can even exchange small talk with a troll woman in the woods or visit the city art gallery’s exhibit of fantasy sculpture.

The Festival drew to a close around a Beréttar Cafe or open stage storytelling cafe, where members of the audience joined us in relating their own family stories. And an always unique part of the experience of festivals in foreign countries is the total cultural immersion: eating traditional dishes, browsing through handicraft stores, and listening to, even if not always understanding, the accents of the language. The whole reflected in each story. Nothing is better than a story first-hand…

For more information write to:
Beréttar Festival (held in June every year)
Norra Jérnvégsgatan, 13
341 37 Ljungby
SWEDEN

—published in WIP Winter 1997

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