National Storytelling Festival

 With enclosed tents that hold up to two thousand people, the Health Department advised the International Storytelling Center not to hold the live in-person version of the National Storytelling Festival this past weekend.  Instead the 49th Festival was pre-recorded and held as a virtual event.

But…for us…Jonesborough is always the place to be for the first weekend in October.  This has been true for the last forty-one years.  So, Trish and I could not stay away!  In fact, all three of the Davis boys and Doug’s wife, Jill, joined us there for the weekend with our Jonesborough friends, Terry and Sandy Countermine.

All together in Jonesborough.

My upright bass was already there for playing with the Jonesborough Novelty Band (led by Terry Countermine) for the festival, so, on Saturday afternoon we went down on Main Street and played for about an hour.  We met other people there who had also come to town for the weekend because it was their habit to do so.

Playing in front of the International Storytelling Center.

The Town had a Saturday evening event in which most of the stores and shops were open and there were tapas and drinks available all over town.  This was to restore some of the economic loss to local businesses from the absence of the festival crowd.  Trish and I wanted to be in town to show people there our love and support of their community and businesses.  We had a wonderful time visiting with Jonesborough people and the weekend was fulfilling and worth doing. 

We will all look forward to being back next year for the Fiftieth National Storytelling Festival!