Great Texas Mosquito Festival

Festival Location: Clute, TX, USA

Festival State: Texan Festivals

Festival Type(s): Bizarre Festivals, Local Festivals

By: © Nelson Taylor 2009

In the moist and muggy southeastern part of Texas sits the small town of Clute. To honor their healthy population of mosquitoes, every July they throw a three-day festival. Begun in 1980, this event now attracts almost 25,000 people. While there's just about everything you might expect at a small town festival -- food, beer, rides and games -- some of the contests deserve special mention.

There's the Mosquito Legs Contest, where men and women are judged by how skinny their legs are, and then there's the Mosquito Calling Contest, where people are judged by their creative interpretations of a mosquito call. Looking over the entire event is Willie-Man-Chew, the world's largest mosquito, a 25-foot tall Texas mosquito decked out in a cowboy hat and boots.