Overview Detroit Story Fest is a one-night stage show at the Detroit Opera House where reporters from the Free Press, WDET, Michigan Public, Outlier Media, BridgeDetroit and Bridge Michigan tell true Detroit stories alongside local comedians, filmmakers, dancers and musicians, and it sold out the Opera House in 2025. The 2026 show was its third year in the city, built on the theme Villains: stories about what we fear, what we misunderstand and what we become. It is one stop on Story Fest, the touring show produced by the nonprofit Back Pocket Presents, whose 2026 calendar held five cities. On site The Opera House on Broadway is the room, and Detroit Opera is an official partner that sells the tickets. The bill mixes reporters' stories, adapted from their own reporting and rebuilt for the stage with photos, animation and a live score, with comedy, short film, dance and live music. Stories run from true crime to comedy, politics to poetry. Audience The newsrooms bring the room. Each partner puts a reporter on stage and promotes the night to its own readers and listeners, and the Free Press has appeared three years running. Talent and Influencers In 2024 Free Press writer Georgea Kovanis told the story of Amanda, who carries Narcan and clean needles into drug houses that harm-reduction nonprofits cannot reach while fighting her own addiction. In 2025 Free Press auto writer Jackie Charniga told the story of her great aunt, whose hospice care was paid for by the UAW benefits her late husband left behind. Track record Detroit joined Story Fest in 2024, the show's second city after Philadelphia, and sold out the Opera House in its second year. Across the tour Back Pocket counts 3,000 attendees and 30 partners in 2025, up from 800 and 8 in 2023, and the show has also sold out in Philadelphia and San Francisco. Brand presence Americans United for Separation of Church and State presented the 2026 season. Partners come in at four levels, from supporting to presenting, and can take the VIP mixer before doors, where the storytellers, editors and Detroit's cultural figures meet, or build a branded story into the show that is cut into video for the partner newsrooms' channels. Category exclusivity and top billing are available.