Wooly Worm Festival

Festival Location: Banner Elk, NC, USA

Festival State: North Carolinan Festivals

Festival Type(s): Bizarre Festivals, Animal Festivals

By: © Nelson Taylor 2009

Amid the reds and yellows of Autumn, deep in the Blue Ridge Mountains, the 400-person town of Banner Elk, becomes a booming metropolis of 25,000 during their annual October Wooly Worm Festival.

The main event is the wooly worm races. The racetrack is on the backboard of a flatbed trailer, where about 20 strings hang from top to bottom. Throughout the day, in about 60 heats, worms inch up the strings, crossing the finish line at astonishing speeds. Anyone can enter for $5, whether they bring their own worm or buy one on site. The winner takes home a cash prize of $500, and that worm gets the honor of having its stripes "read" by local kook Charles Von Canon.

In mountain folklore, it is said that the winter weather can be predicted by taking careful notice of the width of the wooly worm's 13 stripes. Well, Von Canon might not be such a freak afterall; he's got a prediction rate of 90% over the last 21 years. Not bad...put that in your pipe, Nostradamus.