WANDERING bards, minstrels, musicians and dancers will descend on Wear Valley at the end of September when the North Pennines Storytelling Festival celebrates its tenth anniversary.

Over the past ten years, the festival has reached 10,000 people and brought together different cultures from all over the world.

Highlights have included a Sri Lankan teller of harvest stories, who performed at Stanhope, a roaming Scot telling tales of wonder at the Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, and a Turk telling traditional Jewish stories to Christian congregations in Weardale.

This year, four events are being held in Wear Valley. Tales of Hot Pursuit takes place at the Hare and Hounds, Westgate, on Friday, September 28, at 7.30pm.

Ghosts of Our Ancestors is featured at Killhope Lead Mining Museum the following day, at 11am, and Garrigill Dancing Master, featuring the folk band Tashbain, will be performed at Stanhope Old Hall at 7.30pm.

Rookhope Village Hall is the venue for the final event, From Here to Armenia, on September 30, at 2.30pm.

Seven storytellers are involved, including A Bit Crack, the North-East's own group of professional storytellers, and three special guests.

Festival programmes are available from Mari Macdonald, on (01388) 761605.