FAIRFIELD BAY — Stas’ Ziolkowski founded the Fairfield Bay StoryFest in 2010. Although he no longer lives in the area, StoryFest has never been far from his heart. He will return to the festival this year as a guest presenter.
Ziolkowski said the phrase “You can’t go home again” was originally attributed to the writer Ella Winter.
“Thomas Wolfe asked and received permission to use it as the title of his novel,” said Ziolkowski, who now lives in Murrysville, Pennsylvania. “It refers to not being able to return to your family, your childhood, to a young man’s dreams.
“Well, I am going back home again. I am returning to Fairfield Bay, where I was never young in age, but where I felt that I had a family of friends and where dreams did come true,” Ziolkowski said.
“I met so many wonderful people in the Bay as soon as we moved there in July of 2006,” he said. “They made it possible for me to start a theater group that performed many wonderful plays and musicals over the next six years. We had so much fun and were able to entertain residents, visitors and many other friends. We even managed to raise some monies for the Fairfield Bay Library and did benefits for some of the churches.”
Ziolkowski said in 2010, “Thanks to the support of John Spies of the Community Club; Tom Schueren, the mayor at that time; and Robbie Miller of the chamber of commerce, plus a great number of volunteers and supporters, I was able to start the Fairfield Bay StoryFest.
“It was a dream come true, with four nationally known, professional storytellers providing the entertainment,” he said. “During the next two years, the event grew.”
As a result of family circumstances, Ziolkowski and his wife moved to Pennsylvania.
“Mayor Paul Wellenberger was a great supporter of StoryFest and promised me that he would do his best to keep it going, and he has done just that,” Ziolkowski said.
“I am very honored and proud to have been asked to perform at this year’s festival,” he said. “I look forward to telling stories in the community I love and to friends and new faces in the place I still think of as home. And I am very pleased to be able to share the stage with Anne Rutherford, one of the truly outstanding storytellers of our country.”
Ziolkowski turned 75 in August.
“But I am not slowing down,” he said. “I have been active here in the Pittsburgh, [Pennsylvania], area, as well as West Virginia and Maryland. This past June, I started a new festival working with a community library. It is the Tales Under the Trees Storytelling festival, and it is held in a beautiful park.”
StoryFest will be presented Saturday as part of a two-day celebration in Fairfield Bay that includes OktoberFest, which will start on Friday and continue through Saturday at the Fairfield Bay Convention and Visitor Center.
Advance tickets to StoryFest, which will be presented in two sessions in the theater at the convention center, are $10 and are available by calling (501) 884-4202; tickets at the door will be $15. One ticket is good for both the 9:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. performances.