National Storytelling Festival Honored in the Best of the Blue Ridge, 2008 by the Readers of Blue Ridge Country Magazine

Every five years, Blue Ridge Country magazine readers vote on their favorite places to eat, overnight, hike, bike, camp, wildlife watch and more. This year, the National Storytelling Festival was voted Platinum in the Established Festival Category.

The award winners are featured in the July/August issue of Blue Ridge Country, which celebrates the magazine's 20th anniversary. Reader votes were submitted through mailed paper ballots and the magazine's website.

The 36th National Storytelling Festival will take place October 3-5, 2008 in historic Jonesborough, Tennessee. The three-day outdoor festival is produced by the International Storytelling Center (ISC) and features performances by internationally-known artists who are recognized as the world's premier storytellers. USA Today heralded the National Storytelling Festival as "the leading event of its kind in America." Smithsonian Magazine wrote that "Jonesborough is the seat of a storytelling renaissance that has spread to every corner of the land." And the Los Angeles Times said of the festival "…what New Orleans is to jazz…Jonesborough is to storytelling."

Blue Ridge Country, produced by Leisure Publishing Company in Roanoke, Va., is a bimonthly magazine with a readership of 425,000. It covers the mountains of nine states from Maryland to Alabama. Established in 1988, the publication has won state, regional, national and international awards for writing, design and editing.

For more information contact: Carla Papy, Events and Marketing Coordinator, International Storytelling Center, (423) 913-8209, and Cara Ellen Modisett, Editor, Blue Ridge Country magazine, 540-989-6138.

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