Father Christmas helps set storytelling record

HENLEY’S Father Christmas said he was “really chuffed” to receive a certificate for taking part in a successful attempt to set the world record for continuous storytelling at a festival in Morocco.

In January, Mike Facherty was one of more than 100 people take part in a Guinness World Record-setting session at the Marrakech International Storytelling Festival.

The attempt lasted 80 hours,
32 minutes and 58 seconds and took place at Jemaa el-Fnaa, the main square and a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Participants from 33 countries took part in the record attempt, telling stories in a range of languages including English, French, German, a range of Moroccan dialects, Arabic and Hindi.

Mr Facherty, 74, took centre stage at around 2am with an estimated audience of more than 50 people listening.

He said: “I did a couple of local stories, Billy Goats Gruff, Gingerbread Man and one of my own that I developed from a Punjabi story about the boy who wanted a dog. It’s a lovely story.”

Mr Facherty, who lives in Caversham, has been portraying Father Christmas for around
40 years at a number of events, including the Henley Christmas Festival, said it was “wonderful” to take part in the festival.

“I’d never gone abroad to a story festival before in real life,” he said. “I’d done a few online ones and the whole thing was just fabulous.

“The Guinness World Record, in some ways, was the icing on the cake.”

While others have been presented with their certificates at other festivals during the year, to his surprise, Mr Facherty received his recognition during an afternoon tea at the House of Lords last month.

Lord Monroe Palmer invited guests to the event in the Cholmondeley Room, on behalf of the British Moroccan Society. Mr Facherty attended with his wife Sue, a retired former teacher at Emmer Green Primary School. It was a total surprise because it was just for afternoon tea. Mike Wood, who’s the chairman of the [British Moroccan] Society and the person who organised the storytelling festival, stood up and was doing a speech when suddenly he said ‘now we’ve got a storyteller with us who hasn’t yet had his certificate’.

“I thought ‘oh that’s me’. It was because I hadn’t gone to any festivals in Britain this year, and almost everyone had already got their certificates given to them at festivals.

“So, I ended up being the one that was getting it presented by the ambassador in the House of Lords.”

Mr Facherty was presented with his certificate by the ambassador of Morocco to the United Kingdom Hakim Hajoui.

He said that he would “certainly” be taking part in the festival again, which takes place every two years, adding: “I would certainly do it again. The whole festival was fabulous.”