Visitors to Cape Girardeau Storytelling Festival will spend $150 a day here

This weekend will be Wayne Carter's third time to pack up his stuff and pile his friends into the car for a trip from Pontotoc, Miss., to the Cape Girardeau Storytelling Festival.

"The stories, naturally, are a big draw," Carter said from his home. "But I'm really impressed with y'all's city. I tell people I want to retire here, but if I've got to move, it would be OK if I moved to Cape Girardeau."

Carter's crew enjoys dining downtown, antique shops and the Mississippi River views in-between storytelling sessions in tents on Main Street and at the Southeast Missouri State University River Campus.

Visitors like Carter at this weekend's Storytelling Festival will spend an average of $150 per day during their visit here, said Chuck Martin, festival co-producer and executive director of the Cape Girardeau Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Martin estimates visitors spend $45 per person on lodging, $35 for food, $15 for gasoline and $55 on miscellaneous expenses including festival tickets, shopping, snacks and souvenirs.

Last year's Storytelling Festival brought the largest crowd yet, with about 740 tickets sold and attendees from 16 states.

About 150 people have purchased advance tickets so far this year. Weekend passes and one-day tickets are available throughout the weekend at the Convention and Visitors Bureau office at 400 Broadway, which serves as festival headquarters.

"This event is different from many of the others we do. Typically we draw people from Southern Illinois, western Kentucky and northwest Tennessee, but this event gives us the opportunity to bring people in from a wide area and have them walk away, go back home and talk about this great community and the great time they have here," Martin said.

Carter, who will make the five-hour drive from his Mississippi home to Cape Girardeau, said tickets for the Cape Girardeau Storytelling Festival are more affordably priced than festivals elsewhere. He also said he's been impressed with the quality of the storytellers.

"They tell them in such a way, you're just sitting glued to your seat," Carter said. "You're going to laugh, but maybe you're going to cry at some of them. Some of them are very touching. What they've told may have been true-to-life experiences."

This is the fourth year for the Storytelling Festival, which has grown steadily each year, Martin said. "We live in a day when we expect instant gratification. When you're building an event like this, it's something we hope will become a signature event for our city. We want to continue to build on it."

This year's featured storytellers include Bil Lepp of Charleston, W.Va.; Willy Claflin of San Francisco; Elizabeth Ellis of Dallas; The Rev. Robert Jones of Detroit; Kathleen Brinkmann of Urbana, Ill.; and Linda Dust of Assumption, Ill.

Performances begin at 9 a.m. Friday and continue through Sunday afternoon. The festival's swapping ground will let amateur storytellers perform at noon and 4:30 p.m. Saturday in the Main Street tent.

Olio performances featuring the four nationally known storytellers will be at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 1:30 p.m. Sunday. A sign language interpreter will be provided at all three Olios.

For more information, visit www.capestorytelling.com or call 335-1631.

mmiller@semissourian.com

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Pertinent address:

128 Aquamsi St., Cape Girardeau, MO

518 S. Fountain St., Cape Girardeau, MO