Now in its 35th year, the National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough is an East Tennessee fixture that brings visitors from around the country and storytellers from around the globe. The festival began Friday and concluded yesterday. Headliners included Tom Chapin, who has won three Grammy Awards for his albums of stories for children. Jimmy Neil Smith, president of Jonesborough’s International Storytelling Center, founded the festival in 1973 when he was working as a high school journalism teacher. After he and a carload of students heard a story about coon hunting on the radio, he had a sudden inspiration and a festival was born.