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POETRY IN MOTION

By Emily Pearce - Tuesday, May 13, 2008
POETRY IN MOTION
Storytellers make an impression to promote the Storytelling Festival on May 23 to 26.
THE Island Storytellers have enlisted the help of Alfred Lord Tennyson to promote this month’s storytelling festival.
It may be an unusual method of advertising but the groups’s plan to etch a few lines of Tennyson’s Crossing The Bar in huge letters on the beach at Sandown Bay certainly worked — before their efforts were washed away by the tide, their sand art was impossible to miss.
Around 50 volunteers spent Sunday morning at the beach, inscribing the poignant poem’s first verse in ten-metre high letters on the stretch of sand between Sandown and Shanklin.
Storyteller Sue Clark said: “It was hard work in the heat but really good fun nevertheless and there was a real sense of success when we had finished. We had to be organised to beat the tide so it was a real team effort and a community effort, too. Youngsters from Shanklin youth club, the sea scouts and the Learning Zone all got involved.”
The IW Storytelling Festival, which has adopted a Ferry Tales theme, will be held at venues around the Island from May 23 to 26.
Headline acts will include the all-girl British trio Annamation, who will be performing their new show, Tongue and Groove, energetic performing artist Sam Cannarozzi, and seasoned festival performer Cassandra Wye, whose unique style combines elements of circus, theatre and dance.
There will also be a series of storytelling workshops, competitions and informal story-rounds, giving younger and novice storytellers the chance to practice their skills.
Festival programmes are available at Newport tourist information centre. For further information and tickets, visit www.islandstorytellers.co.uk or call 07528 481758.