Erin Farley Stories

05/03/2026

Hello! It's been a wee while. I've been quietly getting on wi several projects which will emerge in the next few weeks... first up in a spring of exciting things, join us in Arbroath on the 28th of March to celebrate women and words wi an amazing line up of poets, storytellers, speakers and speech workers! Arbroath 2020+1

Join host Taylor Dyson for a powerful and thought-provoking conversation, an inspiring panel of women dedicated to sharing Untold Stories.

24/09/2025

For the avoidance of doubt, me and Monica will not be doing puppetry WITH saintly relics... just about them. Promise.

We're really looking forward to voyaging to Edinburgh for To the Ends of the Earth on Saturday 1 November, the final day of the Scottish International Storytelling Festival. We will be exploring the story of St Triduana and her journeys and transformations... see you there? 👀

✨ Meet some of our storytellers ✨

This year’s Scottish International Storytelling Festival brings together incredible voices from Scotland and beyond.

🌊 Erin Farley & Monica Lucia Madas take us on a mythic voyage about saintly relics, puppetry + song, diving deep into unseen waters and legends
🔥 Mark Borthwick blends beats + bardic vibes, exploring migration, memory + the stories that shape us
🌲 Ruth Kirkpatrick & Colin Urwin channel selkie folklore, sea magic + coastal voices, reawakening the bond between humans and nature
🎶 Marion Kenny weaves music + myth, drawing us into timeless stories where heritage, nature + creativity collide

Don’t miss your chance to see them perform!

📍 22 Oct – 1 Nov
Book your tickets today https://bit.ly/4nICJ3J

22/07/2025

The Space Between VI: The Green Man of Knowledge

Thursday 7 August, Sweet Venues at Keiller Centre

It’s nearly Space Between season again, and some of you may have noticed I am on a wee bit of a Jack theme recently.

There is one Jack tale, the Green Man of Knowledge, which has been haunting my brain since my early days of learning about folk tales. Geordie Stewart told it to Hamish Henderson in 1954, and it’s one of the longest and strangest Jack tales in the Scottish tradition.

Telling one big story as your whole session, when you've been pushing yourself in all sorts of strange mental directions already this year but get most of your good feedback on pulling together short stories into a theme would be - some might say - very foolish.

As Jack would say... HERE’S FOR IT

🦢🦢🦢

Jack sets out on the road to a land where everything is alive and nothing is certain, and into the web of magic and trickery spun by the Green Man of Knowledge. And at the centre of the story, transforming matter and landscapes and her own body in a constant cycle of shapeshifting, we find the Green Man’s Daughter.

PS Who let me have a gig the day before the Burryman?! I promise not to make it a whole hour of me yelling about how much I love the Burryman.

10/07/2025

Portobello, get ready... Manifesto of Bliss is coming to the east coast for the first time on Friday 18 July! 🌳🐚💫

The Manifesto of Bliss covers all contemporary manifestations of counter-cultural joy, with a remit that takes in music, literature, DJs, live bands, art works and good times.

Join us at Porty town hall for a night of four-to-the-floor folklore with J Wright Presents, Ian Humberstone (of Folklore Tapes fame), visuals from Stephen Gribbin, Manifesto of Bliss DJs aaaand the first live performance of story tunes from me and Stephen Clarke 1980 (Jack by popular demand!)

Tickets are on Skiddle and 'going fast' according to the website 🌟

05/07/2025

The excellent Robyn Scanlan City Flowers Garden Studio has a brilliant festival day lined up for Dundee next Saturday 12 July at the Botanic Gardens 🌿 There will be chilled family activities from 12 (bairns get in free!) and performances of spoken word, music, poetry and loads more starting from 2. I'll be bringing stories at both ends of the day, and cannot wait to share a garden wi local legends such as Mark Richardson, Elfie Picket, Lux Lucis, Tayside Region, Kinbrae and many more... 🌻 🐌 💚

05/06/2025

Looking forward to joining the excellent Sandra Ireland and Lyndsey Croal to talk folklore, writing and the weird tidal zone between oral tradition and literature at Dundee Book Festival next week! We'll be at the Mills Observatory - on Friday 13th no less...

Discover Scottish folklore with authors and historians exploring legendary tales and their impact on modern literature. A captivating chat on oral traditions.

25/04/2025

I'm sorry (no I'm not)

Thank you dragon for this reminder that my storytelling event The Space Between V - Rebel Pilgrims is next week! On actual May Day, 7pm Sweet Venues at the Keiller Centre.

Tell ye a secret - it's not really about the dragon. It's about the women (and the trees and the socialism of course). I'm really enjoying bringing together the ancient landscape folklore and the radical industrial tradition around the banks of the Tay for this one and I hope it sparks some thoughts for the listeners (you? yes you!) too 💚

🎟️ in the usual place or on the door!

ALSO I'm very happy to discover the fab Wet Tech team have an event about the Bow Gamelan Ensemble in the same place just afterwards, why not make a night of it, I will be!

09/04/2025

🌸 This is your 3-ish week warning that I am back on my nonsense 🌸 see you for...

The Space Between V - Rebel Pilgrims

7pm, Thursday 1 May, Sweet Venues at the Keiller Centre

(aka the WOMEN! TREES! SOCIALISM! edition as trailed at last week’s Blether)

The Nine Maidens are saints, goddesses, victims, wanderers in the landscape and folklore of Angus.

Young women once marked their holy day with a pilgrimage from Glamis to Abernethy, walking even when kirk sessions told them to stop. Later, women from Dundee's factories walked out and walked the hills, defending the right and the time to roam in these hills shaped by giantesses and goddesses.

To celebrate spring and solidarity for May Day, join me for stories of women's walks and words, strikes and pilgrimages 🌱🪻🌞🐉

28/03/2025

In the beginning… there was Jack.

Today is the official release day for Dancing Trees - I can now say I have a record out! How in the name of the wee man did that happen, I hear everyone who’s ever heard me sing asking?

Last year, after coming across each other’s work through some strange coincidences involving Blindboy Boatclub and the KLF, electronic musician Stephen Clarke 1980 asked if I could record some folklore to do with ritual and dancing, to be a link between songs on his upcoming album.

So I’m thinking, what story… not one of the ones where everyone gets turned to stone for dancing, that’s not the craic here. And suddenly I thought of Stanley Robertson’s Jack tale about Auld Cruivie and the trees dancing in Aberdeenshire, and that felt like the right thing. So I record that and send him the story, thinking maybe a minute or so of it would actually end up in the world.

And then Stephen replies, hang on, I’ve just realised how important Jack is here, and starts telling me about Jackin House music and the Warehouse in Chicago -and so Jack set off on another journey and the Jack tale/Jackin House crossover the world has been waiting for was born!

Dancing Trees is now a limited edition vinyl single & EP, out today on Manifesto of Bliss, and there is some beautiful lino print artwork from friend of the Manifesto TheDarkMitchell... explore at https://manifestoofbliss.bandcamp.com/

10/03/2025

Nice to see a piece in the Sunday National about the newly published Anthology of Scottish Folk Tales Volume 2 yesterday, with me and the excellent Tim Porteus talking about our chosen tales (shout out to the East Lothian Gyre Carlin, she's an icon ✨)

It's lovely to have Finella and Jockie Barefit representing Angus on the national team here and hopefully inspiring a new generation to do revenge on a king and haunt a landlord, among many other brilliant stories from all over Scotland!