The first festival was held in 2010 (July 23rd and 24th) at the Forest and Wildlife Auditorium, Deorali, Gangtok, Sikkim, North-East India with support from the State Culture and Heritage Department, Sikkim Express, Sikkim Now, Rachna Books and Publications, WWF Sikkim, Endeavours Kabi and various individuals and private donors. The festival was being organised after nearly two years of intensive background work, community networking, fundraising and hard work.

The primary aim of the Festival - The Festival of Indigenous Storytellers - is to bring together tribal storytellers, stakeholders, organisations, communities - both tribal and non-tribal - in a way that is not only interesting but also meaningful... something that builds crossovers and adds perspectives that can positively influence the stake of tribal knowledge (vis`-a`-vis` folklore) in the context of various and present critical issues, from environmental to developmental. One great way to do so is through a festival. We call this 'Confluence'.

The Confluence provides a great platform to promote traditional oral storytelling of our tribal communities. It brings together our dissappearing oral storytellers - from shamans to medicinemen to scholars to folklorists - under one roof to share not only their folklore but also - and perhaps more importantly - their wealth of commuity knowledge, myths, legends, beliefs, practices, medicine, spirituality and so on. All this can potentially help revive interest in the value of storytelling both within and outside the participating communities.With a growing support of expert agencies and organisations, from environmental to developmental, it provides a great stage to bring out the relevance of these stories in the present context.



In many ways, Confluence is about revival of our tribal cultures, and our practices that have had strong links with sustainability, that are being lost to the modern world. 2011 will be the second year of the Confluence  and will  bring storytellers from various indigenous communities, from various regions of the country.

Festival 2011, Bangalore | Festival 2010,Gangtok
Festival on Facebook

Join Us

As a storyteller or a shaman or a community-based organisation, you can be a part of the yearly festival held across different venues in India. For the festival, Acoustic Traditional sponsors the participation of around 10 to 15 storytellers each year which include travel, food/accomodation and participation costs (workshops, sessions, etc.). At the moment we are supporting storytellers who have a tribal backround and are community based. However, please feel free to get in touch with us (visit the contact section)by submitting a small cover letter which includes:

a. Storyteller details b. Community/Region c. Nature of stories (myths, legends or folktales) d. style of presentation (oral narrative, singing, dancing, etc.) and e. how it would be of help to you in terms of your participation.

Please also note that we support storytellers whose style is more or less oral in form and presentation.






Copyright, Acoustic Traditional, 2011