Turning Tides is the theme of the sixth Moth & Butterfly International Festival of Storytelling & Improvisation, running from Thursday, January 29, to Sunday, February 1, in Loughrea, Galway City and Athenry, as well as online.  It will include collaborations with Arts in Action at the University of Galway, Tonnta Irish Language Festival, Galway City Museum, Loughrea Library and Athenry Heritage Centre.

Scéal Eile, an Irish-language storytelling session for all the family will take place on January 29 in Loughrea Library, with master storytellers Máirín Mhic Lochlainn and Paddy O’Brien.

In The Kaftan of Love at UG’s O’Donoghue Theatre on the same day, Irish-based French artist Fiona Dowling will share stories inspired by her work with Moroccan and other global traditions.

The festival launch will take place that evening in the city’s Blue Note pub.

Cork-born London-based Kate Corkery will bring her award-winning, autobiographical solo show, The Sweetshop On The Shore, to the festival, while popular Dublin duo Underthings will give a fully improvised performance on Friday night at Blue Teapot Theatre, in the city’s Westend.

Fiona Dowling will be joined by multi-instrumentalist Michael Chang for a swashbuckling family show, Tales & Tunes from The High Seas, at Athenry Heritage Centre.

Irish language events will continue with bilingual Scéalta Iontacha sessions at Galway City Museum and the popular Charlie Byrne’s Stories For Children (with Tonnta).

Adults aren’t forgotten either, with Moth and Butterfly’s flagship Night of Storytelling at Blue Teapot Theatre on Saturday, January 31.

Daytime offerings at that venue will include a storytelling workshop, A Story In Your Hand, with Kate Corkery, and an improvisation workshop, Glitter & Glue, from the Underthings.

Sunday’s headline show is Kate Corkery’s The Sweetshop On The Shore, a journey through the imagination and observations of a child growing up in West Cork.

For this festival, Moth & Butterfly issued a challenge to storytellers worldwide to tell a story in one minute, record it and submit it. The result is Gimme a Minute!

Some of these stories will be online and others will be told live at the final event, in Blue Teapot, on Sunday. The Big Story Circle will feature audience tellers and visiting artists.

This year’s online panel chat, Stories For Change, will feature multi-disciplinary artists Dee Mulrooney, Treasa O’Brien and Festival Director Órla Mc Govern. That will be available online during and after the festival.

Órla founded the Moth & Butterfly ensemble, which has hosted regular monthly storytelling and improvisation events in Galway for over 15 years, as well as collaborating with festivals and events at home and abroad.

“Storytelling and Improvisation are such powerful art-forms,” she says. “I love that we can emerge both delighted and transformed after hearing a good story.”

This year’s festival addresses what’s been a year of change, she adds.

“I wanted to reflect that, to honour the stories we need to tell, to bring and make new ones, and let in the light.”

Festival events will either have set prices or are free, with donations welcome.

■ All details at mothandbutterflystories.com

Pictured: Órla Mc Govern of Moth and Butterfly (left), with Kaisa Kokko-Palmer from Finland at the flagship storytelling night at last year’s festival.