Gimistory, the Cayman Islands International Storytelling Festival, drew what its organisers described as record numbers in 2025, and this year's edition was programmed to carry five free nights of stories, music and folklore from Cayman Brac to Pedro St. James between 1 and 6 November. How many people came in 2026 has not yet been made public.

The festival is produced by the Cayman National Cultural Foundation (CNCF), a statutory authority of the Cayman Islands Government and a registered charity, which dates Gimistory's launch to 1998. This year's edition carried the theme "Island of Dreams" and, according to the foundation's programme, was to open at the Aston Rutty Centre in Cayman Brac on Sunday, 1 November, before moving to Cardinall Avenue in central George Town on Tuesday, 3 November, Heritage Park in East End on Wednesday, 4 November, and West Bay Heritage Park on Thursday, 5 November. The closing night, Duppy Story Night, was listed for Pedro St. James on Friday, 6 November.

Five nights, five stages

The programme paired visiting artists with Caymanian tellers. The international guests announced for 2026 were Jamaican storyteller Dr. Amina Blackwood-Meeks and performers from the Royal Irish Academy of Music, whose visit CNCF said was facilitated by CayMusicA. The local tellers named were Nasaria Suckoo-Chollette, Camille Angel, Giselle Webb, Hylton Grace, Josefa Martinez, Lesley Ann Bernard and Priscilla Pouchie, with music from Beneil Miller and drummer Randy Chollette.

Several of those names recur across the festival's recent history. CNCF's review of 2023 lists Suckoo-Chollette, Webb, Angel, Grace and Martinez among that year's local performers, and a Government release on the 2024 festival named Bernard, Martinez and Suckoo-Chollette among its storytellers.

Food was part of the offer. CNCF said vendors at each stop would sell traditional Caymanian dishes, including fried fish and fritters, stew conch, Cayman-style beef, cassava cake and heavy cake, with menus varying by location. It also said storytellers would again visit local schools during the festival week, giving students the chance to experience storytelling first-hand.

Announcing the programme on 15 October, Cassandra Shea, CNCF's Head of Theatres and Festivals, said: "Gimistory reminds us that some of our most treasured traditions begin with something as simple as sharing a story." She said the theme celebrated the imagination, creativity and sense of community that storytelling inspires, adding: "We look forward to welcoming audiences across the Islands to enjoy this special oral tradition together."

The route to the stage began in September. CNCF held auditions at Bodden Town Library on 17 September and at the Harquail Studio Theatre in George Town on 19 September, open to children aged six and over, adults and groups presenting original songs, poetry and short stories.

A guest who has been here before

Dr. Blackwood-Meeks is a familiar name to Gimistory audiences. CNCF's review of 2023 records that she and Phillip "Black Sage" Murray, "from Jamaica and Trinidad, respectively", were that year's international acts, and she was also on the bill announced for the 2019 festival.

In Jamaica she is closely tied to a festival of the same vintage. The African Caribbean Institute of Jamaica, a division of the Institute of Jamaica, credits her as the founder of Ananse Soundsplash, a storytelling festival and conference it describes as "a hallmark of Jamaica's storytelling culture since its inception in 1998". The institute says Jamaica observes National Storytelling Day each year on 20 November, and that Ananse stories "have long been used and appreciated for their philosophical value".

What the foundation's reports record

The fullest public account of Gimistory sits in CNCF's annual reports, which are published on the Parliament website. Read together, the four most recent show a festival that has changed its dates, its venues and its partners from one year to the next.

In 2022, the report says, the festival "was successfully staged from 25 November to 02 December" in all five districts of Grand Cayman, and in Cayman Brac as part of Brac Heritage Day. CNCF commissioned an entirely local line-up that year, among them Rita Estevanovich and King Navassa, both returning from London, alongside Matt Brown, Suckoo-Chollette, Jevy Ebanks and Aunt Sookie. Tellers and staff worked with nine local schools, the stories were professionally recorded for the first time through a partnership with Ironshore Studio in George Town, and a district Fish Fry competition was won by George Town. The report, which counts six district touring presentations, said the recorded stories would be made available through a new CNCF website.

In 2023 the festival ran from November into December and made seven district touring presentations. With international acts back on the bill, CNCF also funded Estevanovich and King Navassa to return from the UK, and performing groups from John Gray High School and Clifton Hunter High School took part. The review notes "a dedicated Savannah performance following a hiatus period" and school visits "incorporating both public and private schools across all age groups".

In 2024 Gimistory was produced with the Pirates Week Festival, its performances forming part of the District Day evening programme. The report says additional presentations had been expected to bring the total to 11, but "rain cancellations brought the output figure back to the anticipated number of events", which it gives as seven. Heavy rain affected the West Bay, Bodden Town and Little Cayman events, the report says, while footfall "was significantly higher" and the collaboration "was considered overall to be a success". The Government's release that year said the foundation would bring storytellers directly into local schools, with children invited to share their own stories on stage through a "Give a Story" campaign, and listed a calypso storytelling workshop at the Harquail Studio Theatre.

In 2025 the arrangement changed again. Under the theme "Welcome to Storyland", Gimistory "did not merge with Pirates Week District Days this year as the festival was considered to have a different target audience", the report says. It was presented a week before the District Days "to record numbers both for the total evening performance and in particular 'Duppy Story' night and school presentations". The report again counts seven district touring presentations, and six culinary events against a target of one. It also lists, among the foundation's outreach work, "the participation of Fairbanks and Northward residents in Gimistory".

What the public pays for

Admission to Gimistory is free. CNCF says it is funded in part by an annual grant from the ministry responsible for culture, with the balance coming from facility rentals, licensing and private sponsorship, and its annual reports show the festival delivered as part of the work the Government buys from the foundation each year.

Those reports place Gimistory within an output titled "Cultural Festivals, International Exchange/ Local Partnership", which also covers Cayfest and the administration of funding for the Cayman Carnival events Batabano, CayMas and Brachanal. They record the cost of that output at CI$383,468 in 2022, CI$383,468 in 2023, CI$333,468 in 2024 and CI$433,468 in 2025, in each case the same as the budgeted figure. The pages setting out that output do not give a separate total for Gimistory in any of the four years, and the cost of the 2026 festival has not been published.

A closing night among the duppies

The festival's final evening has become its best-documented draw. A Government release on the 2024 festival said Duppy Night "closes out Gimistory in its traditional ghostly fashion", and that year it was held at Smith Barcadere in George Town, outside the Pirates Week programme.

In 2025 it moved. CNCF's annual report says Duppy Story Night was produced "at a new venue at the Pedro Grounds which was well received, welcoming between 450 – 500 attendees", the only attendance figure for Gimistory in the pages of the four reports that set out the festival output. This year's programme listed the closing night for Pedro St. James.

The setting carries its own history. Pedro St. James describes itself as a national historic site on seven landscaped acres by the sea, where an Englishman named William Eden built the Great House in the late 18th century. The site says it is perhaps best known as the "Birthplace of Democracy in the Cayman Islands", as the venue for a meeting on 5 December 1831 at which the decision was made to form the first elected parliament, and that the Government bought the property in 1991 for development as a historic site. It also records that on 3 May 1835 the proclamation ending slavery in the British Empire was issued there, and that restoration of the Great House concluded in 1996, having also served as a courthouse and jail.

Why it began

CNCF's own history records that 1998 "saw the launch of the Gimistory International Storytelling Festival, which would go on to become a cherished annual event celebrating oral traditions and cultural exchange". The Government's 2024 release put the purpose plainly, saying that since its inception the festival "has aimed to revitalize Cayman's treasured storytelling tradition".

The foundation itself predates the festival by more than a decade. CNCF's history says its formation was formally announced by the Government on 14 May 1983, that it launched Cayfest, the national festival of the arts, in 1995, and that its charter is "to promote, protect, preserve and nurture cultural and artistic heritage for all".

The foundation's reports explain why that tradition is treated as worth reviving. Its 2021 report describes storytelling as having been the main community entertainment, and a means of transferring cultural mores, before the advent of radio and television. Its festival page says Gimistory "celebrates the ancient art of storytelling and revitalises a form of community entertainment", with "renowned international and local tellers" sharing the stage with the next generation, supported by workshops and masterclasses in storytelling, writing and performance.

Earlier editions travelled further than this year's programme. The 2019 festival was announced for seven nights between 29 November and 7 December, with stops in Cayman Brac, North Side, Bodden Town, East End, Little Cayman, West Bay and George Town, and with guests from Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and the U.S. alongside local tellers Matt Brown, Quincy Brown and Virginia Foster. The announcement billed it as the festival's 20th anniversary, returning after a year's hiatus, described Gimistory as bringing together more than 2,500 people, and promised fried fish and fritters on sale. Marcia Muttoo, then CNCF's Managing Director, said at the time: "The purpose of the Festival is to provide family entertainment for locals and visitors in a relaxed setting."

The festival's leadership has changed since. CNCF's history says that in 2023 the foundation "transitioned from its long-standing Artistic Director and Managing Director structure to a departmental leadership model", and the 2024 release named Patrice Beersingh as Festival Director. Beersingh called Gimistory "a cherished tradition deeply rooted in Caymanian folklore", and Shea said that year the foundation was "thrilled to continue celebrating over 20 years of legacy of storytelling".

Looking ahead

The record for 2026 is, for now, the programme. CNCF's account of how many nights were staged, how many people attended, how many schools the tellers reached and what the festival cost would ordinarily appear in its next annual report, as its accounts of the 2022 to 2025 festivals did.