REFLECTIONS ON JONESBOROUGH’S NATIONAL STORYTELLING FESTIVAL 2012

I spent the Canadian Thanksgiving weekend in Jonesborough, Tennessee. Jonesborough is the site of the annual National Storytelling Festival. This is the event’s 40^th year celebration. USA Today has described the Festival as “the leading event of its kind”. After attending many of the telling performances there, I can honestly say this is not an exaggeration. It is a total immersion in all popular genres, styles and personalities currently shaping American storytelling. The featured tellers are many and represent some of the best of the best among American tellers.

The Festival has four large performance tents spread around the small town. The largest tent holds 1,500 people! Jonesborough normally has about 5,000 residents but during this year’s Festival, that number swelled exponentially with over 12,000 avid and passionate fans of the art of storytelling flooding into the small downtown core. Organized by the staff of the International Storytelling Centre, located in Jonesborough, hundreds of volunteers ensured that all events, site logistics, visitor support and guest registration went very smoothly. Local and state police were in evidence, always friendly, helpful and courteous as they mingled with the visitors, coordinated complicated traffic management movements and even happily posed for the occasional picture.

Each day begins at 10am and continues with special storytelling events drawing enthusiastic fans to the tents and an intimate, indoor performance studio until almost midnight. By my count, there were 25 top premiere or ‘featured’ tellers and 6 new-comers to the Jonesborough stages, each of them having their loyal fans. Each event was emceed by one of six well-known tellers who kept the audience entertained and hyped for the featured performers. 

An event lasted one hour. Sometimes there were several tellers performing in one show while a few of the featured tellers were given their own one hour gig. Between shows, fans had a half hour to make their way to the next tent venue, visit the porta-potties, grab some food from the vendor tents while mixing and mingling with other excited and eager fans. Some of my most memorable moments in my visit were talking to other fans about specific tellers they had heard that day or more often, we traded stories about our own interest in storytelling and some of our telling adventures.

I was surprised to learn that for many who come to Jonesborough each year, the average number of Festivals attended by a fan is six. However, I met many who had been coming for 10, 20 or in one case, 30 years! Just as the featured tellers come from all around the US and two were from Canada, the fans often travel huge distances to sit at the Holy Grail of American storytelling. While Jonesborough is the ultimate event each year for many, I quickly learned that storytelling festivals are hugely popular all over the United States. I lost track of how many Festivals I saw displayed on the T-shirts and fleeces of the fans.

The weather in north-eastern Tennessee at this time of year can always be a bit tricky to predict with confidence and this year was no exception. Friday and the early part of Saturday started off sunny and warm but quickly changed to cloudy, colder, windy and rain for the rest of the time. While most Festival goers came prepared for the changeable weather, I am sure the sale of fleece and windbreakers in the Visitor Centre did a brisk business.

Would I make a pilgrimage to Jonesborough again, I am often asked now that I am back home? Absolutely, no doubt about it. It was an amazing learning experience, hugely entertaining and lots of fun. From where I live in Ontario to Jonesborough, it is a fourteen hour road trip. There is the cost of hotels or B and B’s, meals, Festival registration fee and gas but I don’t regret the expense at all. At least not until my Visa bill arrives next month!

In Part Two of my Jonesborough blog posts, I will introduce you to some of my favourite tellers at this year’s Festival and reflect on lessons learned for me as an aspiring teller.

To be continued…

Written by Don Herald (A member of Peterborough Storytellers)

October 18, 2012.