International Storytelling Center

My letter to the unpatriotic folks of Jonesborough: Hello. We visited for the first time this past weekend because we had always heard nice things about Jonesborough. The town seemed delightful, until we passed the court house and were horrified to see the 10 Commandments posted in brass beside the front door.
For those who seem so uninformed of the most basic of America’s founding principles, here is how our constitution reads:
The First Amendment (Amendment I) to the United States Constitution prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering with the right to peaceably assemble or prohibiting the petitioning for a governmental redress of grievances. It was adopted on December 15, 1791, as one of the ten amendments that constitute the Bill of Rights.
As an American who is very proud of our country’s founding principles of freedom and especially of their brilliant idea that in order to protect religious freedoms for all, it is imperative that there be separation between church and state.
So I find it to be incredibly offensive that your local government would throw dirt on these patriotic ideals and smear your most prominent government with religious text that represents only one type of religion to the disdain of all others. How dare you!
Bottom line: I’m way too patriotic to ever again visit a town and spend money where citizens degrade the founding principles of this great nation we call America. I don’t know where you folks in Jonesborough think you live, but it is NOT Thomas Jefferson’s America. Shame!

The annual Festival is wonderful. Great entertainment. lots of laughs and deeply touching messages (you can look around and see people with tears in their eyes during a story).
_​Tips_​
1) Make your hotel reservations as soon as possible. Some of the in-​town accommodations are booked a year in advance by die-​hard storytelling fans. We stayed in a rental house in Johnson city about 30 mins away — and the drive is pretty but it would be nice to stay in town.
2) Plan on arriving 1 & ½ hours early for Friday and Saturday in order to get good seats near the front. Some people (usually volunteers) will ‘save’ a row of seats for their friends so you have to plan to be here early.
3) Bring a cushion — the folding chairs are hard to sit in all day.
4) The Festival is held in large canopy tents and the weather varies year to year — pack umbrellas, jackets and also summery clothing. We experienced rain (mud), hot weather, and cool nights in a three day period.
5) If you have a family member or friend who has mobility issues try to reserve one of the parking spaces close to the festival. In addition, local churches and residents will sell parking space on the day of the Festival but the spots fill-​up quickly and you may still have to walk 6 – 8 small blocks. Free parking is almost impossible to find. Church parking was $ 10/​day.
6) Leave enough time to walk around and enjoy the historic downtown and also have a nice meal. You will usually have to wait 20 – 30 mins for a table in a restaurant during the Festival.
7) Comfortable shoes are a must.
8) Most of the bathrooms are port-​a-​potties, they were fine — but just be prepared and use the facilities when you have a restaurant meal.
9) Bring your patience and good humor — everyone wants to crowd-​in to see Donald Davis but the other storytellers are also great and you may actually find a new favorite if you go to one of the other tents.
10) Finally — bring a loved one with you to the Festival — it will an unforgettable experience for you to share and reminisce about for years!

Nationally acclaimed storytellers are invited to tell their stories to over 10,000 people over a three day festival each year. Don’t miss this! It’s held in the oldest town in Tennessee, and the venue is perfect for such an event. I spent eight hours listening to numerous storytellers from all over the country. Each takes about 30 minutes to spin his or her yarn. We are seated in huge tents. I sat next to a lady who had come for the last five years from California; she said after attending the first time, it had become an annual fun event for her and her father. The organizers are highly organized, the storytellers are wonderful — funny, profound, thoughtful and energetic entertainers. After listening to them for many hours, you begin to notice what makes them great storytellers if you can stop being immersed in the story long enough to analyze it — I found it almost impossible! I will return.

The center is a jewel in the mountains of East Tennessee, set amidst a well-​preserved historic town. The 2:00 pm Storytelling performances are wonderful ways to immerse oneself in the center’s art form. Of course the annual National Storytelling Festival is the highlight of the year. You need to put this on your bucket list. Remember to go between May and October.

«Once upon a time …»
Just returned from the 39^th annual National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, TN — a weekend listening to fairy tales and folk tales — imaginary stories, ghost stories, true stories of people — relationships — literary magic, linguistic lightening that made me laugh, and then 2 hours later, shed a tear or two.
Traditionally held the first weekend in October, the festival draws thousands of listeners and (this year) 18 professional storytellers who shared their tales of love and laughter, music and linguistic mastery under 5 big-​top tents crammed with chairs and stages and
sound technicians.
The festival runs Friday morn through Sunday afternoon, with special evening (separate ticket) ghost stories, midnight cabarets and theater events.
I began my day at 10:00 a.m. Saturday with a tale by storyteller Bil Lepp who told of his boy-​ish high school adventure: toting around a sack of flour for a week (the girls toted eggs) to teach him lessons about parenting. My day ended after 5:00 p.m. with a mesmerizing true story of a «sassy» woman in Birmingham, AL, who related her tale of southern living to the talented Dolores Hydock — a woman with a gift for words and expression. Ms. Hydock recorded the stories and passed them along to us in such a creative way. I did not want the performance to end.
True, tickets are pricey, yet something worth saving for.
Two food courts, four churches offering their culinary fare and a couple of local restaurants offer eats at reasonable prices. And it wouldn’t be complete without a marketplace to purchase books on the craft, storytelling CDs, shirts and bags and pins with festival logos and more.
And for budding tale tellers, a «Swappin’ Ground gives everyone with a story opportunity their skills at this intriguing and most-​fascinating art form.

Our fourth trip (first attended in 2002) to the National Story Telling Festival, annually held the first weekend in October, in Jonesborough TN was great!
While you can visit the Storytelling Center throughout the year the premier event is the Festival in October. This year there were 19 tellers — mostly from the US, but some from outside the US too.
What does one do at this festival? Well, there are «tellers» and «listeners». The listeners choose from 5 concurrent «tellers», pick a tent, listen for an hour and laugh and cry and enjoy. Many of the tellers are Grammy award winning musicians too.
In this age of digital media, storytelling is difficult to describe, but well worth your consideration. You can buy single or multi day tickets. The festival is very well organized which makes the weekend easy and fun.
Check it out. You will be glad that you did.

I have an aunt that lives in Greenville, and every year to tells my sister and I was have to come see the storytelling festival. Finally, about 5 years ago we did. We couldn’t come during the actual festival week, but we came in June and saw the performer of the week. I had never seen a storytelling performance before and it was awesome. It’s really a shame it’s not still a popular form of entertainment. I’ve been back twice since, I’ve seen a minstrel, a Cuban who told funny stories about growing up in the deep, very white, south and a guy who told scary stories. I can’t wait to go back.
The actual theater is really cute. It’s small and very intimate, it’s wonderful. Tickets sell out because space is limited so I would recommend ordering early; the planning is worth it. The tickets are reasonably priced and there’s is a raffle you can sign up for that’s usually for a cute tote bag full of stuff from the gift shop.
I really like the gift shop and usually end up buying something. They always have a display dedicated to the performer of the week and then also a large selection of story books, things from other performers, greeting cards with photos from past festivals, calendars, shirts, mugs, magnets; the whole gift shop thing.
If you’re ever in the area, make some time to check it out, it’s one afternoon you’ll remember forever.