The Athens Storytelling Festival kicks off today. The event is expected to attract thousands of visitors to northern Alabama.
School groups will listen to storytellers from all across the country from today until Thursday. The audience could include over 9,000 children.
Amateur storytellers will compete tonight. Thursday night will begin the professional storytelling events.
Wayne Kuykendall is the chairman of the Athens Storytelling Festival. He says the storytelling event is different from many others.
“In Jonesboro, the children have to pay to go. I think it’s twenty dollars a person. And the people that don’t get to go are naturally the low-income kids. That may be the kids that probably need some exposure to something like this more than anybody. And our event, every kid gets to come, and I mean literally every kid. No fee, because it’s provided.”
Professional storytellers participating in the festival will include Donald Davis, Andy Offut Irwin, Dolores Hydock, Michael Reno Harrell, and Three on a String.