Ella Clarke is 9 years old and a student at Holy Family Elementary School on St. Thomas' Line. She is the youngest of 3 children, a sister, Molly; and a brother, Ben. Ella loves to sing, dance, and tell stories and she has a wild imagination. 

Matthew Byrne was born into a family of music makers from Placentia Bay, Newfoundland, and his repertoire is heavily influenced by this unique singing tradition. It is a tradition that thrives on the song - the weaving of a great story with a beautiful melody - and Matthew's music reminds us how satisfying traditional songs can be when stripped down to these basic elements. His live performance offers tasteful and honest interpretations of folk music delivered with polished guitar work and powerful vocals. His repertoire transcends time and place and offers a collection of traditional songs from both sides of the Atlantic.     website

Cassandra Clowe-Coish is a grade 6 student at Holy Cross Elementary School in St. John's.  She was one of the winners of the Storytelling competition as part of an ArtsSmarts project last year at her school.    

Award winning writer and storyteller Ivan Coyote was born and raised in a large working class Irish Catholic family in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory. Coyote weaves humour and hard-hitting homocore reality into a series of interconnected stories that touch on and tackle topics such as gender identity, class, growing up queer in a small northern town, and kitchen table family memoirs. Coyote can deftly cut through dogma and catastrophe to render a world that is decidedly bent, and yet undeniably filled with hope. Ivan tours extensively, and over the last fifteen years has become an audience favourite at storytelling, spoken word, poetry, writer's and music festivals from Anchorage to Amsterdam. The Globe and Mail called Coyote "a natural-born storyteller" and Ottawa Xpress said " Coyote is to CanLit what kd lang is to country music: a beautifully odd fixture."    website

Lewis Fearon is 14 years old and loves nothing more then to listen to a good yarn, spin it round and tell it back to all who will listen. He is looking forward trying out a Newfoundland Jack tale at this years festival.

Mary Fearon has been performing professionally since 1997. During that time, she has performed at a variety of festivals, schools and other events both in Newfoundland & Labrador and Australia. She has run storytelling workshops over the past 8 years for teachers, early childhood educators, professionals working with families and the general public. She is an active member of the St. John's Storytelling Circle, a member of Storytellers of Canada and sits on the board for the St. John's Storytelling Festival. She has a particular interest in traditional Newfoundland material and was inspired a few years ago to co-develop the book "Over The Big Fat Waves; A Collection Of Newfoundland & Labrador Rhymes, Songs and Language Games".

John Harris is a grade 6 student at Bishop Feild Elementary School in St. John’s.  John’s first storytelling performance was in 2009 when he was the narrator for his school production of the puppet show “Snow White”, also presented at St. John’s Story Telling Festival in 2009. John combines his love of story telling and passion for politics in the story of “Mouseland” from the famous Tommy Douglas speech.   

Pearl-Ann Gooding is a recognized storyteller in Canada and has been telling and teaching stories nationwide since 1995. In 2007 she recorded her third CD with Children's Stories entitled AGAIN and has had her stories published in an anthology for the grade 4 curriculum in Alberta. Her love of a great tale and spine tingling anticipation has drawn her to develop a haunted hike in her home town. Intrigue, mystery and reaching into the realm beyond bring her 'October Repertoire' to you! Pearl-Ann resides in what she claims to be 'the most haunted small town on the prairies', Wainwright, Alberta.

Christine Hennebury is a Mount Pearl-based writer, actor and storyteller, with a background in mystery dinner theatre. She is the founder and Chair of the Association for the Arts in Mount Pearl. Christine's stories, monologues and storytelling tend to feature avenging deities, murderers and seekers of revenge but she swears she is quite a peaceful person by nature. She gets a lot of practice telling stories to her sons, who have an alarming knowledge of vengeful goddesses as a result. She is a lively host for events of all sizes, drawing on a friendly and quirky sense of humour to engage the audience and help them feel part of the performance.

Jean Hewson wears many hats (including the one pictured here). For thirty years she has been a traditional singer, guitarist, music teacher, and event organizer. She has also spent the last 49 years sidelining as a professional trouble maker. So far, she has eluded capture by the authorities, no doubt due to her chameleon-like ability to blend into a crowd.

Dale Jarvis tells ghost stories, legends and traditional tales from Newfoundland and beyond.  Founder of the St. John's Storytelling Circle, he was Storytellers of Canada’s representative at the inaugural meeting of the Federation for European Storytelling (FEST) in Norway, 2008. Since 1997, Dale has been the host of the St. John's Haunted Hike, named “Event of the Year” by the City of St. John’s. Author of four books on Newfoundland folklore and ghost stories, Dale has also taught workshops across North America on historical storytelling. He has taught hundreds of children to tell their stories, and is a passionate supporter of the oral tradition.

Andy Jones has been a professional writer and actor for over thirty years. He has written five critically acclaimed one-man comedy shows: Out of the Bin, Still Alive, King O' Fun, To The Wall and An Evening with Uncle Val. He has extensively toured, to critical acclaim, across Canada as well as to Glasgow (Scotland) and Waterford (Ireland). He is well known in Canada as one of the groundbreaking members of the Newfoundland comedy troupe CODCO, in both its theatrical and television incarnations. His projects have been released on CD (Letters from Uncle Val), DVD (The Adventure of Faustus Bidgood) and as television films (King O' Fun).
(website)

Widely known and highly respected on the island as a teller of traditional and community tales, Alice Lannon lives in Southeast Placentia. She has told stories at festivals, workshops and special heritage events, and credits her gift as a storyteller to her grandmother. Alice has been a highlight of many festivals and a treasure trove of traditional Newfoundland storytelling.

Growing up a Newfoundlander of Cockney parentage who later lived in Québec, Louise Moyes most often performs docudances: shows she researches, choreographs, and performs, working with the rhythm of voices, language and accents like a musical ‘score’. She is currently working on dance and interdisciplinary projects by choreographers Jo Leslie and Eryn Dace Trudell. Moyes studied at Studio 303 in Montréal and developed her craft through the Festival of New Dance and Sound Symposium, St. John’s. She has performed throughout Canada and in Germany, Italy, Iceland, New York, Australia and Brazil.   (website)

Tobias and Gerard Pearson were born in Merasheen, Placentia Bay, to Aggie Wilson and Cecil Pearson. Their grandmother, Kate Wilson, was a powerful traditional singer who passed her songs to the boys and their mother. Tobias and Gerard also learned the old songs from their father, whose origins were in Petit Forte, Placentia Bay. The brothers have performed at various folk festivals in Newfoundland. As well, Tobias has performed at traditional music gatherings in Boston and New York. Gerard's lovely tenor voice and Tobias's sense of humour place them in high demand at folk festivals and ballad sessions. They will perform traditional murder ballads in a special late night session of murder ballads and ghost stories in the Newman Wine Vaults.

Helen Fogwill Porter was born and reared in St. John's, Newfoundland, where she still lives. A writer of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, humour, drama and criticism, Porter is particularly interested in regional speech and creating a vivid sense of place. Helen is also a regular contributor at the monthly Storytelling Circle and continues to inspire with tales and remembrances of St. John's and the South Side in other times.

Now 18, Ellen Power has been singing all her life. She has performed at the Burin Folk Festival and at this festival several times over the last ten years. She has also performed at the March Hare. Ellen is a regular participant in the NLFAC Young Folk At the Hall workshops. She is also a member of the chamber and treble choirs at her school, St. Bonaventure’s College. Ellen’s dad, Pius Power Jr., and her grandfather, Pius Power Sr., were well-known traditional singers from Placentia Bay. She hopes that someday she will pass on her songs to her children and grandchildren.

Puppetmongers Theatre is primarily the work of Ann Powell and David Powell, who define puppets as objects brought to life for an audience. Collaborating with an ever growing pool of other artists, we have created twelve plays, each one developing different ideas in puppetry and theatre. Established in 1974, Puppetmongers has toured across Canada and the USA, as well as to Europe and Iran. We are recipients of the President's Award and the Award for Artistic Excellence from the Puppeteers of America, and many of our shows have received awards both here and in the USA.