While the Lancaster Story Slam is a competition, please be assured we don’t take the competitive part too seriously. Our goal is to provide a fun night of stories for the audience, and we are always thrilled to see new participants hop on-stage. If you’ve been thinking about telling a story, the Lancaster Story Slam is a great venue to get on stage for the first time!

The best advice we’ve heard is this: Know the first sentence of your story and know the last sentence of your story. If you know where you are starting and have your destination in sight, you’ll do just fine!

Official Rules for the Lancaster Story Slam are as follows:

– Stories should fit into the theme of the night (Check Schedule!)
– Stories should be true as you remember it
– Stories should be under five minutes in length
– No Notes, no props, no music

Three judges are chosen from the audience and each storyteller is given scores based on content and presentation. The winner gets a spot in November’s Grand Slam and takes home one of our prized pint glasses.

In the event of a tie during a regular season story slam, the event producer will choose one of the following:
a) declare the Story Slam a tie and award each of those tied a spot in the Grand Slam.
b) announce there is a tie, and then have the judges independently cast secret ballots as to which story they deemed best.

* Storytellers register upon arrival by completing a release form and we draw 10 names to share stories. The storyteller release form states that they are okay with having the story posted on YouTube, our website, and/or social media pages. Storytellers retain all rights to their stories.

Photos courtesy of Michelle Johnsen Photography.