17. Attend the More Tales Storytelling Festival.
Directions: Head to Wilmore City Hall at 210 S. Lexington Ave. More Tales is held in the Dan Glass Pavilion on the back lawn.
Ed Bryson, one of the founders of More Tales, tells me that he attended his first storytelling event in 1983. It was the Corn Island Storytelling Festival in Louisville.
At that point, the modern movement was only ten years old, having begun in the early 1970s in Jonesborough, Tennessee. This initial gathering of 60 people took place around a farm wagon. The storytellers included a former Arkansas congressman, a Tennessee banker, a college professor, and a western North Carolina farmer. They told their stories so well that a movement was born. The Los Angeles Times wrote, “What New Orleans is to jazz, Jonesborough is to storytelling.” Audiences now top 10,000. They pack into enormous, circus-like tents throughout the town every first weekend in October.
Jonesborough’s event spawned hundreds of festivals in the Appalachian region and beyond. The world’s largest event is the Scottish International Storytelling Festival. Other significant international festivals include the Marrakech International Storytelling Festival in Morocco and the Mumbai International Storytelling Festival in India. In an era of globalization, these festivals help preserve local cultural heritage. In an era of polarization, they build human connection.
This year’s More Tales runs from September 18 to 19, 2026. Friday night features ghost tales (6:30 PM – 9:00 PM), and Saturday features full-day storytelling (10:00 AM – 9:00 PM), food trucks, and a tall tales contest. Admission is free.
