The Warrnambool Storytelling Festival will feature about 30 artists from the south-west and Melbourne, as well as some international guests, at events in Warrnambool, Terang and Crossley.

The 17-day festival begins with a launch event at the Lighthouse Theatre on Friday night and runs until July 3.

Festival planning committee chair Philip Liebelt said this year's program was filled with a range of performances and interesting sessions from a wide cross section of the community.

"One of the things we're trying to do is look at the diversity of the arts and community groups in Warrnambool and finding some way of bringing them together into an event using storytelling in all its forms," Mr Liebelt said.

He said the launch event on Friday night would include a special guest performance from acclaimed local songwriter and storyteller, Tom Richardson, as well as appearances from Mel Steffensen, Aidan Nicolson, James Laidler, Les Cameron, and Ben Witham & The Betty Band.

"The festival's for people who are interested in storytelling but it's storytelling in a range of different formats, music, cultural Indigenous stories and literature. It's all good quality," Mr Liebelt said.

He said some of the festival highlights included musical events from Bruce Campbell and Ben Witham, a literary panel featuring four local well-known authors who would discuss the creative process as they used it and an original radio play to be performed in front of a live audience.

"There's two Indigenous events, one's Robbie Lowe on a bus tour telling Indigenous stories and then we have Yaraan Couzens Bundle talking about southern right whale dreaming stories," Mr Liebelt said.

He said the whale dreaming stories session had sold out and a second show had been added to the program to meet the demand.

He said the bus tour with Peek Whurrong Elder Robbie Lowe would include cultural stories of the land as participants travelled from Warrnambool to Yambuk and return via Port Fairy.

He said last year's walk and talk tour with Robbie Lowe sold out early and they had to add extra places. This year, due to the format numbers are limited and people are encouraged to book.

Mr Liebelt said there would also be a storytelling hub at Gateway Plaza which would include children's stories, displays and characters.

He said it was important to note storytelling wasn't just for children, and the festival was for everyone.

Mr Liebelt said organisers were excited to run the festival which had double the number of performances compared to last year's inaugural event. "We've got something just about every day," he said. "There's 30 events over 17 days. We've tried to space them out and most things are cheap or free. We've tried to make the events accessible for everyone."

For more information about individual events or to book go to warrnamboolstorytelling.com.au

Warrnambool Storytelling Festival

June festival events

July festival events

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