This weekend, storytellers from all over the country and the world will be just 90 miles from Knoxville as historic Jonesborough, Tenn., plays host to the 34th Annual National Storytelling Festival.
Running from Friday to Sunday, the festival will be the stage for at least 25 storytellers, hailing from all over the world. Stories at the festival come from the Deep South as well as other regions of the country, and from Cuba, Croatia, Africa, South America, the British Isles, Japan and elsewhere.
Blues, ballads, poetry and the banjo will enrich the storytelling as well. The festival is set up to have 10,000 people attend, far more than the 60 people who attended the first festival in 1973.
Now, every year the event turns the town of Jonesborough into what appears to be a circus, complete with circus-like tents that can seat 2,000 people.
Ghost stories will be told at 8 each night in all weather with ground seating. It is not recommended for young children. Ghost storyteller Joseph Bruchac, of Abenaki Indian ancestry, won Storyteller of the Year from the Woodcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers. The ghost story performances are $10 and are booked separately.
Aside from scary tales, there will also be comedy by people such as Bil Lepp, who scores laughs with his life stories about finding the perfect gift for his wife, climbing the Berlin Wall, entering North Korea, cooking cod at KFC and his blue truck.
Antonio Rocha, a Brazil native, takes his comedy from his experiences adjusting to life in America. Rocha adds mime to his routine and has performed at such venues as the Singapore Festival of Arts and the Yukon International Storytelling Festival.
Other performers include Donald Davis, brought up in the Southern Appalachian story-telling traditions and Sheila Kay Adams, a seventh-generation ballad singer and author. Diane Ferlatte has told of the breakdown of cultural and racial barriers in Holland, Sweden, France, Australia and Malaysia. Kathryn Windham, recipient of the Storytelling Circle of Excellence and Lifetime Achievement Awards, first appeared at the festival in its second year and is returning. Kevin Locke, a Lakota Native American named Master Traditional Artist by the National Endowment for the Arts, plays the Northern Plains flute and hoop dances in addition to storytelling. Kuniko Yamamoto, who for a decade has been performing her solo act “Japanese Storytelling with a Magical Mask, Mime & Music,” will also perform.
All the music, storytelling, song and other performances at the festival are sure to take the audience to another world in a festival atmosphere not commonly seen. The festival brings oral tradition back to the modern world.
It is now too late to register, so those wanting to attend must pay on arrival. The full weekend admittance is $140 for adults. Children and seniors receive discounts. A one day visit on Friday or Saturday is $92, and Sunday admittance is $42. Saturday and Sunday entertainment is $123.
Many accommodations are already full, but other options can be checked online. Jonesborough is roughly 10 miles from Johnson City and 25 miles from Kingsport. Food is available at the festival. No pets are allowed, and recording equipment is not allowed inside performance tents.
The producer of the festival is the International Storytelling Center, located in Jonesborough, which operates year-round to promote the art of storytelling.
More information can be found by navigating to http://www.storytellingcenter.net or by calling 1-800-952-8392.
