GOINGS ON : Solvang Is the Place to Hear Lots of Tales : That’s because it’s the site of the fourth annual Flying Leap Storytelling Festival on Friday and Saturday.

If you like your tales tall, this could be your weekend.

From Barbara McBride Smith’s Bible tales with a twist to the Pacific Rim folklore of the group ETH-NOH-TEC, the fourth annual Flying Leap Storytelling Festival, on Friday and Saturday in and around Solvang, will feature the yarn-weaving gamut.

Rounding out the storyteller line-up are festival director Michael Katz, Angela Lloyd, David Novak, Mark Elk Baum, Chic Street Man and Nadja Forest.

The festival will kick off Friday at 8 p.m. with three programs: a wine-tasting / storytelling at Carey Cellars in Solvang ($15), a “Ghost Stories Under the Stars” program in Los Olivos ($8 adults, $6 children) and “Biblical Stories That Will Tickle Your Belly” at Santa Ynez Valley Presbyterian Church ($8 adults, $6 children).

On Saturday, there will be a morning showcase of professional storytellers and youth performers, a show by the Santa Barbara Storytelling Group, a workshop with Smith, two afternoon group shows and an evening performance. An all-day Saturday pass is $25 (adults), $15 (children). For specific ticket prices and show locations, call Arts Outreach at 688-9533.

*

Santa Barbara’s Slightly Askew Players will perform two monologues and one comic dialogue in “Taut Wires: Three by Lanford Wilson,” opening tonight at the Center Stage Theater. The common theme of the one-acts is the fine line that people walk between breakthrough and breakdown.

In the first story, the main character deals with the death of his lover to AIDS; in the second, a successful writer returns to her small home town, is interviewed by a local reporter and is reminded of the bad experiences she grew up with, and in the third story, a man and woman try to be intimate without getting close.

The show will run through March 4 (with the March 3 show interpreted in sign language). Show times are 8 p.m. Thursday to Saturday. Tickets are $10. Call 963-0408. The theater is on the second level of the Paseo Nuevo shopping center, Chapala and De La Guerra streets.

*

The Bach Camerata will present its third program of the season tonight at the Music Academy of the West in Montecito. It will feature Bach’s “Suite for Solo Cello in G Major,” Dohnanyi’s “Serenade for Violin, Viola & Cello” and Smetana’s “String Quartet in E Minor.” Concert starts at 8 p.m. Tickets are $18. Call (800) 557-BACH or 966-3492. The academy is at 1070 Fairway Road.

*

Scottish plein-air artist Dorothy Ellis McKenzie will share her love of the outdoors, and her desire to transform that love into art, with her landscape exhibit “From Nature to Canvas,” opening Friday at Santa Barbara’s Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum. The show will run through May 9. The museum, at 21 W. Anapamu St., is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily.

*

If you plan to get married or just want to imagine what it would be like, drop by the Earl Warren Showgrounds in Santa Barbara on Sunday for the 14th annual Fantasy Wedding Faire. It will run from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., with wedding and party planners in attendance throughout the day. There will be fashion shows at noon, 1 and 2 p.m. Admission is $5. Call 963-8862. The facility is are next to U. S. 101 at Las Positas Road exit.

*

Musician Wu Ma, a leading player of the ancient four-string Chinese instrument known as the pipa, will join the Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestra on Tuesday in a concert at the Lobero Theatre. The program will include “The Unanswered Question” by Ives, Faure’s “Suite From ‘Pelleas et Melisande,” Prokofiev’s “Symphony No. 1 in D Major” and “Spring Night on the Moon River--Poems for Pipa and Orchestra,” arranged by Zuqiang. The concert will begin at 8 p.m. Tickets are $14 to $27. Call 963-0761. The theater is at 33 E. Canon Perdido St.

*

Planning a relaxing vacation to Sundarbans, a region of India’s Bay of Bengal? You may want to reconsider. It seems that the native tigers tend to eat people on a fairly regular basis.

To find out more about these not-so-gracious hosts, check out Tuesday’s slide show-lecture by animal expert Sy Montgomery at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. The author-naturalist will discuss these animals considered sacred by the local Hindus and Muslims. The presentation will begin at 7:30 p.m. General admission is $5. Call 682-471. The museum is at 2559 Puesta del Sol Road.