Timpanogos Storytelling Festival

This past weekend Adam and I volunteered at the 21st Annual Timpanogos Storytelling Festival. We did it last year and it was completely boring! It was an all day thing and we really didn't know what to exact and we didn't really like the story tellers we heard. But this year was different. Adam was a Tent Manager and I was a Tent Host...we had official duties this time. We were in charge of the Cottonwood Tent and Saturday Morning the first storyteller in our tent was a first-timer to the Timp Storytelling Festival. His name is Antonio Sacre, he's a national storyteller. It was his first time to Utah and first time he had been immersed in the LDS culture. He was by far my favorite storyteller. His story was about a little Cuban girl visiting her grandma in Miami. It's called, La Noche Buena: A Christmas Story. The story is actually published as a book and will be available for sale on November 1st. In fact, they were selling a few copies at the festival, but when I went to the tent to buy one, they were all gone. But he was an excellent storyteller and I really enjoyed his story.

All of the other storytellers were pretty good too. We worked all day in the Cottonwood Tent and had the opportunity listen to quite a few story tellers. Another story teller I liked was a woman who's name started with a D, who told a story about child birth. Alot of the people in the audience could relate to what she was saying because they were older women who presumably all had given birth at least once.

One thing I noticed about the storytellers was that people liked them more when they could identify with their stories. (It sounds obvious--and it is). But what I noticed is that here, in Utah County, there is a very unique culture that you won't find anywhere else in the county. People are more conservative and their values and way of life are a little different then anywhere else. So when Antonio got up and told his story about a little Cuban girl people loved the story--probably because it was heartwarming and genuine and told superbly, but the next story teller was a guy named Bil (yes, just 1 L) Lepp...I think that was his last name. He is a Utah native (non-LDS) and a farmer...his story was not that great, but everyone LOVED him...and I thought it could be in part because more people could identify with his story about being in boy scouts and farming and things like that. Anyway, it seems obvious that people would like stories they can relate to just like people think comedians that poke fun of stuff they are familiar with are the funniest.

Overall, the weather was nice and our 9 hours of volunteering went by rather quickly. And sadly, this is the only picture I have from that day.