Overview Story Fest is a touring live show in which each city's own newsrooms put their reporters on stage to tell a story from their beat, alongside comedians, short films, dance and live music, all under one theme a year. Back Pocket Presents, a nonprofit team of journalists and artists, produces, curates and directs it. It began in Philadelphia in 2023 and played three cities in 2025; the 2026 calendar held five - San Francisco, Chicago, Detroit, New York and Philadelphia - on the theme Villains, stories about what we fear, what we misunderstand and what we become. On site Reporters adapt a published story for a live audience, rebuilt with photos, text messages, animation and an original score played live, and the stories run from true crime to comedy, politics to poetry. The rooms are civic landmarks: the Herbst Theatre in San Francisco, the Athenaeum Center in Chicago, the Detroit Opera House, St. Ann and the Holy Trinity in Brooklyn Heights, and the Philadelphia Film Society Center. Audience The crowd comes through the partner newsrooms, which supply the storytellers and promote the night to their own readers and listeners: KQED, KALW and Mission Local in San Francisco; WBEZ, Block Club Chicago and the Chicago Reader; WDET, Outlier Media and the Detroit Free Press; WNYC, Gothamist and Hell Gate in New York; the Inquirer, WXPN and WURD in Philadelphia. Talent and Influencers The storytellers are working reporters. In Detroit, Free Press writer Georgea Kovanis told the story of a woman carrying Narcan and clean needles into drug houses in 2024, and auto writer Jackie Charniga told the story of her great aunt's hospice care, paid for by long-gone UAW benefits, in 2025. In Philadelphia in 2024, Stephanie Farr of the Inquirer and Danielle Ohl of Spotlight PA shared a bill with Streets Dept's Conrad Benner and ballroom performer Shaun West. Track record Back Pocket counts 800 attendees and 8 partners in 2023, 2,000 and 17 in 2024, and 3,000 and 30 in 2025. The show has sold out in Philadelphia, Detroit and San Francisco: the first Philly night filled the Bok auditorium with 300 more on the waitlist, and Detroit sold out the Opera House in 2025. Back Pocket reports that a Toyota story, told live with a local philanthropic partner and cut into video for 20-plus partner channels, reached 2.4 million people on social and scored 100% sponsor recall with the audience. Brand presence Americans United for Separation of Church and State presented the 2026 season, and the Knight Foundation funded the first edition. Partners buy in at four levels. The integrations run from hosting the VIP mixer before doors, with the storytellers, editors and local cultural figures, to a branded story built into the show and cut into video for the partner newsrooms' channels, and category exclusivity and top billing are available. Back Pocket's corporate partners across its events have included Meta, W Hotels, Toyota, Comcast and Charm Industrial.