STORYTELLERS and actors will weave yarns of mystery and magic next month with the return of the annual storytelling festival - Tales from the Tees.

It celebrates the age-old link between woodland and storytelling and performers will appear at a number of events in the Tees Valley.

The first festival, last year, was a great success and organisers are hoping for a repeat performance.

Many of the events are community-based workshops, with children given the chance to work alongside professional actors and storytellers to create their own stories.

Organisers are working on the project with the region's foremost storytelling group, A Bit Crack, and Middlesbrough-based theatre company The Team Players, along with SureStart.

Simon Blenkinsop, recreation officer for the Tees Forest, said: "We are building on the success of last year's festival, which enthralled large numbers of young people right across the Tees Valley.

"There is an innate link between woodland and storytelling and we hope to evoke some of that magic with the events we have organised this time around.

"We aim to bring storytelling into the heart of communities so that they may be able to understand and better enjoy their own local natural space."

The event is organised by the Tees Forest, a partnership with the five Tees Valley councils, Darlington, Stockton, Middlesbrough, Redcar and Cleveland and Hartlepool and the Tees Valley Wildlife Trust.

Events in the first few days of the festival include:

* Tudor Tales at Flatts Lane Woodland Country Park, Redcar, on Thursday, between 10.00am and 3.30pm. Booking is essential, on (01642) 459629, and costs £1 per child.

* On Wednesday, August 10, Tall Tales and Fabulous Fable, storytelling and fables at Albert Park Pavilion, Middlesbrough, between 1pm and 4pm.

Leaflets are being distributed around the area and more details are available from the Tees Forest on (01642) 300716.