National Storytelling Festival 2024 in Tennessee

The National Storytelling Festival takes place at the International Storytelling Center in Jonesborough, Tennessee during the first weekend of October. The three-day outdoor event features internationally known artists and tellers. The Festival attracts over 10,000 attendees. It's visited by school groups and college students as an educational experience. The Festival showcases the power and creativity of storytelling, one of the most ancient traditions throughout the world. It promotes youth storytellers and features the National Youth Storytelling Showcase participants.

The festival stages are located in large tents. Usually, five or six of them are gathered in one location in the city so that attendees can easily switch between tents. Storytellers are sitting on the stage or just at the head of the tents. Previous performers at The National Storytelling Festival included Pete Seeger, Jay O'Callahan, Carmen Agra Deedy, Donald Davis, Andy Offutt Irwin, Kathryn Tucker Windham, Syd Lieberman, and Sheila Kay Adams. The festival was included in Top 100 Events in North America.

2024 Highlights

In 2024, the festival features Sheila Arnold, Adam Booth, Mitch Capel, known as “Gran’daddy Junebug”, award-winning performers Regi Carpenter and Sufian Zhemukhov, Alton Takiyama-Chung, musicians Willy Claflin and Lipbone Redding, Donald Davis, Diane Ferlatte, comedian Bil Lepp, and other amazing storytellers.

Special events include Ghost Stories n Mill Spring Park on October 4-5, 2024, from 7:30 to 9 pm, with Janice Del Negro, Megan Wells, and many other tellers. Yarnspinners’ Party will take place on October 5, 2024, from 5 to 7 pm. After Hours with Kevin Kling & Simone Perrin will blend music and storytelling on October 4, 2024, from 9:30 to 10:45 pm.

Festival History

The National Storytelling Festival was founded in 1973 by Jimmy Neil Smith, a high school journalism teacher after he heard a tale on the radio about raccoon hunting in Mississippi. The first festival was held among hay bales, and wagons gathered around 60 people. Gradually, the festival that is based on the Appalachian cultural tradition of storytelling has become one of the leading in the country.

Tickets

An adult ticket to the festival is $120 on Friday and Saturday, and $65 on Sunday if purchased in advance. Tickets include entry to concerts in multiple tent venues from 10 am until 10 pm. Special events like Ghost Stories, After Hours, Thursday Workshops and events that happen in a theater require a separate ticket.