ORGANISERS of an inaugural storytelling festival have announced they are "seriously" considering running the event every year, following a successful turnout.

Dozens of literature lovers attended the Romsey Storytelling Festival, which is held every three years and takes place at various locations across the town.

Romsey town centre manager, Mark Edgerley, said: "The festival went really well and everybody who attended the events enjoyed them.

"King John's House had a story of the Rolls Royce garage run by Rick Ford in the 1950s and they had to put an extra event on because the first one was fully booked and there were more people than expected.

"To be a good storyteller you need 20 people in an audience and there were about 40 in King John's House.

"We originally said we would run the festival every three years and now we are seriously looking at running it every year. It attracted people of all ages."

Residents were even able to enjoy storytelling in the Romsey train station waiting room, where some commuters "did not even realise" the event was happening there, according to Mark Edgerley.

He added: "We will see if we can get a few more people involved in the storytelling festival, because it is something that people in Romsey want."

One of the organisers of the festival, Liz Wagner, said: "I think it was tremendous and a huge success. It opened up a whole new idea in people's minds about what storytelling is and I think all the venues did really well.

"It was really exciting and we will do it again. We originally thought the festival was going to be every three years like the Romsey Festival, but I think it had hit everybody's imagination."

As previously reported in the Romsey Advertiser, professional storyteller Mike Rogers said storytelling does not just appeal to children because "people forget adults listen to stories all the time". They watch them on "TV read them in books and newspapers".

The Storytelling Festival ran from October 1 to October 6.