Twenty years ago, a group of storytellers got together in a Connecticut town to share their love of spinning tales.

The idea to have a special event centered around the art of storytelling soon caught on in other New England towns, and by 1997, there were Tellabration events on every continent except for Antarctica. Today, there are more than 400 official Tellabration sites around the world, and more than 34,000 people will be on hand to hear the stories this year.

This weekend, the Sautee Nacoochee community is doing its part to celebrate telling stories with its own official Tellabration. It's held in conjunction with the international celebration, although taking place a weekend earlier, and will feature six storytellers.

"We're going to do it in our theater," said Clint Underwood, communications director for the Sautee Nacoochee Center. "It's more than one (storyteller), though - we've got a bunch of different storytellers coming out."

This Saturday's event will include storytellers Jo Carson, Marie Dunkle and Lucy (her pet therapy dog and muse), David Fore, Gypsee Yo, Roseann Kent and Debbie Weston-From.

Carson is the author of more than 30 plays, including "Headwaters : Stories from a Goodly Portion of Beautiful Northeast Georgia;" Dunkle is a Tiger-based author and musician; Fore and Kent are local storytellers; Yo is a storyteller originally from Albania; and Weston-From, who is also serving as the evening's master of ceremonies, is known as "Mama D" on her Georgia Public Broadcasting radio show.

Each speaker will have 15 minutes to weave their tale, with an intermission halfway through the evening, according to Arts Program Director Terri Edgar of the Sautee Nacoochee Center.

"We've got 15 minutes per teller with an intermission in the middle," she said. "And it's in our little black box theater, which is very intimate and wonderful."

The event is family friendly and starts at 8 p.m.