2025 - National Storytelling Festival Rally

Scroll down to download the RALLY REGISTRATION FORM 2025(.pdf)

The East Tennessee Airstream Club provides you a unique opportunity to attend this popular festival in your Airstream.

• The $150.00 rally fee includes 5 nights parking with full hook-ups. (arrive Wednesday - depart Monday)
• Everyone is responsible for ordering his or her own event tickets to the festival. There is a discount if you order early, and be sure and tell them if you are a senior. You may call 800-952-8392 or go online to www.storytellingcenter.net
• Early parking begins Sunday, September 28 @ $30.00 a night.

NOTE:  It is not necessary to pre-pay for early parking, just send the coupon (RALLY REGISTRATION FORM 2025) and base rally fee and come join us when you are ready. We recommend you come in no later than Wednesday evening. Festival tickets must be picked up in person and we suggest you do that Thursday morning and also take the opportunity to look around town on Thursday.

In an age of sophisticated technology, it seems unlikely that thousands of people would spend a weekend mesmerized by the voices of storytellers, yet at this event, that’s exactly what happens. The National Storytelling Festival began in 1973 when 60 gathered to hear a few Appalachian tales told from the back of a hay wagon. Those 60 have grown to 11,000 and the hay wagon has been replaced with large circus tents. 

We hope that your travel plans will bring you to East Tennessee in October for the National Storytelling Festival that takes place in Tennessee’s oldest town, Jonesborough, founded in 1779.  It was the first capital of the state of Franklin.  You can enjoy the many shops and businesses that fill the quaint historic district and reflect a reverence for the ‘good old days’.  Tucked away near the Blue Ridge and Great Smoky Mountains, Jonesborough offers historic charm, modern services and small town hospitality.  It is a storybook setting for three days of storytelling festivities.  The picturesque place is where the storytelling revival began, and where thousands return each year to share the time-honored tradition.

Considered the premier storytelling event in America, the National Storytelling Festival is the flagship for a national movement that celebrates the rich history of American storytelling and those who share their stories.  It is the largest and oldest event of its kind in America and attracts an audience of 11,000 from all over the United States and several foreign countries.  From inside large circus type tents, some of the world’s most gifted and wonderful storytellers paint experiences and tales with words and music that bring this art to life. 

As many of our past attendees have said, “It is something you have to experience, you cannot adequately describe it”.  The Smithsonian said, “From all over America, people come to Jonesborough just to hear stories.  Some stories seem to be made out of whole cloth.  Others are like the Tennessee quilts on sale in Jonesborough’s many craft shops.  They weave together past, present, fact and fiction in a tight design both dazzling and unforgettable”. 

For this event, Main Street is blocked off and large circus-type tents are erected throughout town.  The tents are all located within easy walking distance of each other.  Festival programming is scheduled from 10 am to 10 pm Friday and Saturday and from 10 am to 4:30 pm on Sunday.  You can also purchase extra tickets for midnight cabarets that are late night storytelling concerts for adults.  Cabarets begin at 10:30 pm and go until midnight Friday and Saturday nights, and ghost stories, which are offered on Friday and Saturday nights from 8 until 10 pm.

The East Tennessee Airstream Club provides you a unique opportunity to attend this popular festival in your Airstream.  We provide parking with full hookups for the first 40 registrants and have power and water for additional units.  Accommodations at campgrounds and hotels are in very short supply during the festival.  We hope you will take advantage of early parking, which allows you to come early and enjoy the many sites this area has to offer.  Early parking begins on the Sunday before the festival.  Come early and have time to do some touring in the East Tennessee, Southwest Virginia, and Western North Carolina area. 

A must visit is the Gray Fossil Site only two miles from camp.  It was discovered in 2000 and is one of the largest, deepest fossil sites in the world with finds of red panda, rhinos, camels, alligators, tapirs, saber-tooth tiger, elephant, etc.  Tour Bristol International Speedway, attend a play at the famous Barter Theatre in Abingdon, Virginia and have lunch at the historic Martha Washington Inn, take a day trip to Asheville, North Carolina to tour the Biltmore Mansion, visit Natural Tunnel, Virginia or visit the home of President Andrew Johnson with lunch at the historic General Morgan Inn in nearby Greeneville, Tennessee.  Your hosts will be available to offer any guidance, suggestions or directions.

If you plan to come early you will also want to also get tickets for the Donald Davis performance on Wednesday evening before the festival.  You can order those tickets when you order your festival tickets.   Mr. Davis is a retired Methodist minister and a favorite storyteller of many.  If you have never heard him, you have missed a real treat.

Everyone is responsible for ordering his or her own tickets to the festival.  There is a discount if you order early, and be sure and tell them if you are a senior.  You may call 800-952-8392 or go online to www.storytellingcenter.net

The $150.00 rally fee includes 5 nights parking with full hook-ups.  Early parking begins Sunday, September 28 @ $30.00 a night.  It is not necessary to pre-pay for early parking, just send the coupon and base rally fee and come join us when you are ready.  We recommend you come in no later than Wednesday evening.  Festival tickets must be picked up in person and we suggest you do that Thursday morning and also take the opportunity to look around town on Thursday.  Please be back at camp at 4:00 pm on Thursday for a Meet and Greet with your fellow Airstreamers.  Snacks and beverages will be provided.

Please contact Harry Herrmann, Airstream Club BRN 22222 with any questions at

865-966-2222 or harry22222@gmail.com