Welcome to the International Digital Storytelling Festival - Zakynthos site!

We celebrate the power of stories. 
We celebrate the art of storytelling.

Join us as we count down to the 2nd International Digital Storytelling Festival-Zakynthos 2026 (DST-Zakynthos 2026) on October 2-4, 2026!

“This photo I took from the theatre lobby, which indicates to me that my windows have opened through this event and started looking my life in a new perspective.I thought it would be like a seminar or conference, but this was indeed a festival and joy!”
Manikanda Prabhu Ramalingam – Attendee & Storyteller of the DST-Zakynthos 2024

We, as members of the Digital Storytelling community worldwide, have been story workers for almost four decades. The members of this community have been working around the world to foster social justice and raise awareness of issues of concern, in the hope of contributing to a world characterised by respect and equality for all, regardless of gender, race, religion or belief, age, or ability.

We live our lives through stories. We make sense of the world through the stories we share. Some of these stories enable us to forge connections, while others enable us to realise our diversity. Some stories help us realise our desire to live together and some stories demand that we attend to social issues that may be outside our individual experience but cause us to question the meaning of being human and what it means to share our planet with others. Each story we tell, hear, and share defines what sort of a “we” we are.

With that in mind, four Laboratories from three Greek Universities (National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, University of the Aegean, and Ionian University) in collaboration with the UNESCO Club of Zakynthos, organize the biannual International Digital Storytelling Festival in Zakynthos held between the biannual International DST conferences. The 2nd International Digital Storytelling Festival-Zakynthos 2026 will take place in Zakynthos on October 2 – 4, 2026, following the 12th International Digital Storytelling Conference in Belém, Brazil, on November 6-8, 2025.  
12th International Digital Storytelling Conference in Belém, Brazil, on November 6-8, 2025. Hosted by Museu da Pessoa , this edition themed 'Lives, Voices and Knowledge in a World on Fire' , focuses on the climate crisis and the many ways storytelling can help us think about, observe, and address the interconnected challenges reshaping our world.

The Greek island of Zakynthos (Zante) is one of the seven Ionian islands and constitutes a spot in time and space where the convergence of diverse sociocultural narratives takes place. Ugo Foscolo (national poet of Italy), Andreas Kalvos, Dionysios Solomos (national poet of Greece), and Andreas Vesalius are amongst the island's most notable cultural figures.

The International Digital Storytelling Festival-Zakynthos is a unique festival that brings together diverse community-driven digital stories, enabling them to be shared to the broader community and critically reflected upon by experts—including artists, scientists, and medical professionals—as well as by Festival participants, (DST creators or not).

The following video, captures highlights from the 1st  International Digital Storytelling Festival – Zakynthos 2024, We, The Story (27-29/9/2024)—a celebration of the power of stories and the art of digital storytelling.

Prior to the DST-Zakynthos 2024, two national Digital Storytelling  Festivals have taken place in Greece: “When 01 meets narration: Digital stories” at the Greek Film Archive (9-10/12/2017, Athens) & “When 01 meets the Storytelling: Discussions and digital stories” (17-18/3/2018, Zakynthos).