Everyone is welcome to tell stories during the Open Storytelling Event. During this community (“social”) evening, a group of professional storytellers and storytelling enthusiasts will guide the audience through the experiences of Kaunas, Lithuania and Europe in an informal, cosy café setting, telling stories voluntarily and spontaneously. The event not only spreads the message of storytelling, but also develops the skills of storytellers and builds the storytelling scene in Lithuania from below. The Open Storytelling event will be hosted by storyteller Milda Varnauskaitė.

Milda Varnauskaitė is a professional storyteller and teacher of storytelling. Milda appears as a storyteller at various events in the Netherlands and Lithuania, sharing autobiographical, folklore, historical stories, and combinations thereof. The Amsterdam International Storytelling Festival, the Terschelling Oerol Arts Festival, and the Explore the North Festival in Leeuwarden are just a few of the many venues where Milda has told stories. In Lithuania, Milda collaborates with Vilnius University, Kaunas – European Capital of Culture – 2022, and the National Museum of Lithuania. She studied storytelling at the Berlin University of the Arts, Oslo Metropolitan University, and graduated from the Mezrab Storytelling School in Amsterdam, where she also worked for more than 3 years at the Mezrab Cultural Centre, one of the largest storytelling centres in Europe, attracting around 800 people every week to different storytelling events.

IMPORTANT. The event will be held in Lithuanian.