Jonesborough Storytelling Festival

Family is especially important to Sheila Kay Adams.

Like many people, she relies on them for love and security. But unlike most, the memories and stories passed down from her family have taken her around the world, amassed a group of loyal fans and helped her earn a living.

Adams is a musician, best-selling author and storyteller. She sings, writes and shares experiences of growing up and living with her tight-knit family in rural Appalachia.

When describing the National Storytelling Festival held here each fall, she uses a family analogy.

“It’s almost literally like a family reunion – but with 20,000 people,” Adams said of the annual festival.

Starting in 1973 with a few storytellers, a small crowd of onlookers and a wagon doubling as a stage, the event has grown into a three-day extravaganza that lures throngs to Jonesborough.

Spectators arrive the first Friday in October, when the world’s best storytellers converge on Tennessee’s Oldest Town.

The result is storytelling at its highest level – performances that are often deeply engaging and invite each audience member to intertwine their own experiences with the teller’s tale.

It has proven to be a hit with fans who have elevated the festival into what Adams calls “a phenomenon.”

The storytelling begins in the morning and continues into the evening, Friday through Sunday.

More than 60 tellers take to the stage inside six large tents scattered throughout the town.

The festival attracts tellers from across the country and around the world.

“If you are a storyteller by trade, our festival would be the highest venue,” boasts Susan O’Connor, a director for the International Storytelling Center, which houses the festival’s offices and works to keep storytelling alive in Jonesborough throughout the year.

Like the tellers, much of the audience also comes from far and wide, with many returning year after year, O’Connor said.

An audience survey last year showed that 97% of festival-goers were either very or extremely satisfied with their weekend.

“You will find no better audience anywhere in the world than Jonesborough,” Adams said.

Along with the festival, the Storytelling Center has established Jonesborough as the hub for storytelling year round.

From June through October, the center hosts a “Teller-in-Residence,” a nationally known speaker who performs each afternoon in the center’s auditorium. Shows begin at 2 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and tickets are $9.

The center, along with the festival, has made Jonesborough a venue where the oldest form of entertainment can thrive well in to the future. That “phenomenon” isn’t lost on Adams, who harkens back to an image of her family in North Carolina to describe the magic the small storytelling town holds.

“To go to Jonesborough is like going home,” she said.
2008 festival on calendar for Oct. 3-5

Put the National Storytelling Festival on your calendar - it will be held October 3-5, 2008. Tickets are available at a discount if purchased before March 15.

Afterwards, tickets are $155 for a full pass, $133 for Saturday and Sunday, $102 for a Friday or Saturday single-day ticket, and $47 for Sunday. Discounts are available for children under 12 and for people over 65.

The Ghost Stories Concerts begins at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday night when tellers share their best frightening tales in the festival’s only open-air setting. Bring a blanket and prepare to be scared. Tickets are sold separately for $10.

Shuttle service is available by parking at Jonesborough Elementary School on U.S. Highway 11-E. Shuttles run from the school to downtown Jonesborough every 20 minutes from 8:30 a.m. to midnight.