Sagobygden’s Music- & Storytelling Festival

The oldest annual storytelling festival of the Nordic region

Every year since 1990, we have proudly offered this storytelling festival. Previously called “Ljungby Berättarfestival” (“The Storytelling Festival of Ljungby”), the festival now goes by the name of “Sagobygdens Musik- & Berättarfestival” (“Sagobygden’s Music and Storytelling Festival”). The change of name is meant to clearly signify that the festival events are spread all over the Land of Legends. Moreover, we now collaborate with the regional music institution Musik i Syd, with the ambition to combine the art of oral storytelling with music.

Our festival offers storytelling in many different forms – storytelling performances and concerts for both young and old, seminars, lectures, workshops and international exchanges. There are usually around 50-60 different events during the festival, with storytellers and musicians from both Sweden and abroad!
The festival’s website is continuously updated during the spring. Welcome in and read more.

Background

On a late night in Orust, at the end of the 1980’s, I’m speaking to a friend of mine about there being festivals dedicated to music, theatre, film, but none to storytelling.

– Well, then I’ll go home and arrange one of those, I said.

Ljungby was my home, and also the home of my friend Bengt Göran Söderlind. We both worked at the library of Ljungby; we had been captivated by the art of oral storytelling and during the 80’s, we had run various storytelling projects. Important collaborators were the local history societies of Långhult-Målaskog, who safeguarded the cultural heritage of the area and the stories told by Mickel of Långhult. Mickel of Långhult, who died in 1860, was the strangest storyteller of our country.
We now published a calling, and one weekend in May of 1990, we invited storytellers to Ljungby, Målaskog and Långhult. About 40 storytellers, coming from all over the country, arrived at workplaces, libraries, centres for local history societies, streets and town squares. It was a sunny weekend in Målaskog and Långhult, and a myriad of people flocked to watch the villagers indulge in fantastical play, to listen to stories and to experience the magic of nature. All through Saturday night and well into the small hours, one story after another was told in the school of Målaskog, and Lollo Herrman served her “äggaost”*. On Sunday morning, The Storytelling Network of Kronoberg was constituted, with the ambition to enhance the oral storytelling of the country.

The following autumn, we established The Storytelling Network of Kronoberg, and the art of oral storytelling grew in our region and municipality. When The Storytelling Network of Sweden bit the dust (only to be revived later) our association lived on and arranged a new festival every year. Arriving to Ljungby were storytelling enthusiasts, who met like-minded people and returned home inspired to tell stories in their own hometowns, in schools and pre-schools, to arrange storytelling nights and storytelling cafes. The Storytelling Festival of Ljungby came to have a crucial role in the growth of oral storytelling in Sweden.
In 2025, we will arrange the 35th storytelling festival in Ljungby. Through the years, we have been working with a very confined budget and it is thanks to dedication and great ingenuity that the festival has been carried out. We have never had the means for big marketing efforts, but we have had to have faith in that the story of this entertaining and inspiring festival would spread by word of mouth.

Much has happened since the very first festival. Through collaboration with Musik i Syd, Music in The Land of Legends is now a feature of the festival, with vocal music and an ambition to unite oral storytelling and the sung word in focus. The centre of the festival is now The Museum of Legends, a museum that brings fairytales, folklore and oral storytelling to life. The museum is the heart of The Land of Legends Sweden, which promotes legendary places and the intangible cultural heritage in the three municipalities of Ljungby, Alvesta and Älmhult.

The little storytelling association has become a creative organization with employed storytellers and storytelling antiquarians, administrative staff such as producer, communicator and other functions. All of whom carry a big responsibility to, on basis of UNESCO’s convention for the intangible cultural heritage, protect and enhance the storytelling tradition not just in Ljungby and Sweden, but also internationally. The contribution of the storytelling festival to this work is of great importance.
Welcome to an inspiring and active festival.

Per Gustavsson
Chairman of The Storytelling Network of Kronoberg

Note: Did you know that you are welcome to volunteer at the festival, and at other programs arranged in The Land of Legends Sweden? Contact: kontakt@sagobygdensfestival.se if you are interested!

*”Äggost”, or dialectal “äggaost”, is a Swedish dish based on milk and egg.