The Jonesborough Experience. It can’t be described. It has to be absorbed.

Imagine a town seemingly as old as the Tennessee hills on a crisp October day. Imagine a gathering of 12,000 people who are so closely connected by stories that they become as one on that magical first weekend of October each year.

The National Storytelling Festival celebrated its 44th year in historic Jonesborough, Tennessee, the state’s oldest town, Oct. 7-9.

The storytelling festival began in 1973, with an audience of about 60 people and a “stage” made of a wagon and a bale of hay. That humble grassroots movement has been transformed into a global storytelling movement. Each October, those who are fascinated and captivated by stories told in the oral tradition make pilgrimages to the Mecca of storytelling, J’boro, Tennessee.

The journeys are short and long. Some folks come from across the Big Pond to “just be there.”

For those who come, just being there is enough.

Gwin Chunn and friends made the journey from Austin, Texas – a two-day, one-way drive — to just be there at the granddaddy of all storytelling festivals this year

“I went to National Storytelling Festival five years ago and I went not knowing what to expect,” Chunn said. “I fell in love with storytelling and I fell in love with Jonesborough. It’s a long way to go but I had to go back again.”

Chunn coaxed three friends along and they went not knowing what to expect. But, as Southerners say, “The Good Lord willing and the creek don’t rise,” they will be back.

Chunn is the sister of Dr. Judy Dye of Troy. Dye and her husband, Dr. David Dye are storytelling enthusiasts and are also alumni of the National Storytelling Festival. They gave Chunn heads up on tellers not to be missed and she took them at their words.

“Of course, Donald Davis is probably everybody’s favorite and he was at the top of our list,” Chunn said. “But, every storyteller was excellent and there was such a variety of stories and styles. Some of the stories were hilarious and others were serious. Some of the storytellers put music with their stories and some danced.

“One teller’s stories were about nature and another told stories of women in the Bible and of Greek gods. One told Zen tales. One teller was from Ireland. One was from Japan. Every storyteller that we heard was worth the trip from Austin.”

The main storytelling venues were five huge circus-type tents and each was packed and beyond for most every storytelling concert. Nearly two dozens storytellers took turns performing under the big tops — perennial favorites like Donald Davis, Elizabeth Ellis, Bil Lepp and Barbara McBride-Smith and new voices like Jerron “Blind Boy” Paxton.

Chunn said she’s not sure if each tent held 1,200 or 1,500. She heard both numbers.

“You were lucky to get a seat,” she said. “And, you had to get there early to be lucky.  And, while you waited you got to meet and interact with such interesting people. Many of them had been coming for years and years. It was fun to listen to them talk about the storytellers and suggest ones you had to hear.”

And, if you had a willing ear, you could be entertained with stories being told all around the tents and not just in the tents but also all around town.

There were special performances at the Storytelling Theater and teller interviews at the Storytelling Studios. Ghost stories were told in the dark of the night and there was a Midnight Cabaret that was not to be missed. The Exchange Place featured specially invited tellers and the Story Slam! allowed aspiring storytellers five minutes behind the microphone. Impromptu stories were told in front of the courthouse and wherever else a crowd gathered and the notion hit.

“For us, it was an amazing weekend,” Chunn said. “Not only did I get to spend a weekend listening to an incredible lineup of storytellers, I also got to experience Jonesborough through the eyes of my friends, who were all there for the first time.

“It was so good to be back at Jonesborough again. It had been five years and I had forgotten how good it is. But I won’t forget again. I’ll be back next year.”