Fabelhaft Niederösterreich marks 20 years with first Eggenburg stop

The storytelling festival Fabelhaft Niederösterreich is marking its 20th anniversary with a first-time stop in Eggenburg, and the state has extended its partnership with the festival by two years, ORF reports.

The festival will visit the Krahuletz Museum in Eggenburg from November 7 to 9, before continuing at the Sconarium in Bad Schönau from November 12 to 15. This year’s theme is “Dreams: Between vision and reality.”

The programme in Bad Schönau includes “The Long Night of Stories,” featuring music, storytelling, theatre and acrobatics, as well as a story dinner and a festival celebration. The event will also include the “School of Listening,” a storytelling presentation founded by festival creator Folke Tegetthoff.

Tegetthoff said direct communication was especially important at a time when communication habits were changing. Lower Austria Governor Johanna Mikl-Leitner said listening helped build mutual understanding and peaceful coexistence.

According to the festival’s organisers, more than 150,000 people in 12 countries have taken part in nearly 1,000 workshops connected to the School of Listening since 2007, including more than 400 in Lower Austria. In the anniversary year, the initiative is reaching 20 educational institutions in the state.

Tegetthoff launched the festival in 2007 with the then governor, Erwin Pröll. Bad Schönau, which has about 1,000 residents, welcomes around 1,500 festival guests each year. Mikl-Leitner said the event had become a fixture in Lower Austria’s cultural scene.