Woolly Worm Festival in Banner Elk, NC
Overview
Date: 10/16/2010 - 10/17/2010
Time: 09:00 am - 05:00 pm
Location: Baner Elk
Downtown Banner Elk Banner Elk, North Carolina 28604Contact Information
Website: http://www.woollyworm.com
E-mail: sue_z40@hotmail.com
Contact Name: Susan Freeman
Phone: 828-898-5605
Description
Fall in the High Country is a special time; the beautiful autumn leaves burst with color, and the crisp mountain air is at the perfect temperature for a day at the Woolly Worm Festival. What exactly is a Woolly Worm, you ask? Common to colder climates, the Woolly Worm Caterpillar is a larvae form of the Isabella tiger moth, which is a medium sized yellowish-orange moth that has spotted black dots on its wings. The mother moths lay eggs, which hatch during the warm, summer months. Growing into full sized fuzzy worms with brown and black stripes by late summer and early fall, Woolly Worms are common to the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. Every year for the past 30 years, during the third weekend in October, the sleepy mountain town of Banner Elk hosts the Wooly Worm Festival, a tribute of sorts to this incredibly interesting creature. This by far is the most unique Western NC Fall Festivals that you will find. Over the course of the two day event, Woolly Worms compete in different heats and crawl up a series of strings, racing to be crowned the winning Woolly Worm, the winning Woolly Worm is crowned the winner and is thus called to predict the local winter forecast.
As legend and tradition demonstrates, the black stripes on the winning Woolly Worm predict cold and harsh snowy weather while the brown stripes are traditionally associated with more milder conditions. According to festival developers, the winning Woolly Worm has been all or mostly accurate in predicting the upcoming winter nearly 85% of the time. The next Wooly Worm Festival will be held October 17-18, 2009 from 10 am to 5 pm in downtown Banner Elk. As always, in addition to cash prices for the winning Woolly Worm, there will be plenty of fun for everyone with crafts, food, games, and live music.
Photo Gallery
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