If you're in or around Banner Elk, North Carolina, nestled in the mountains near the Pisgah National Forest, about two hours northeast of Asheville, you just must go to the 32nd annual Woolly Worm Festival this Saturday and Sunday.More than 23,000 people are expected to attend the festival, to shop the 140 food and craft vendors, whirl about on rides, and dance to local music. There's a five-mile "woad wace" and a one-mile fun run. The true star of the festival, of course, is its namesake, the woolly worm. Called the woolly worm in North Carolina and the woolly bear elsewhere in the U.S., the woolly worm isn't a worm but the caterpillar of the Isabella tiger moth.
Local farmers have relied on woolly worms as "weather prophets" for generations, interpreting their 13 brown and black segments to predict the severity of the 13 weeks of winter. Local folklore holds that the darker brown or black the segment, the more severe the weather that week. Though not necessarily scientific, some say the woolly worms are about 85 percent accurate.
At the festival, kids, young and old, "race" woolly worms up three-foot pieces of nylon. The winner of the weekend's heats is used to prognosticate the coming winner and the caterpillar's handler goes home happy with $1,000. One of the event's founders, Jim Morton, hopes the Woolly Worm Festival will one day rival that of my home state of Pennsylvania's Punxsutawney Phil.
Tell IT about some funky fall festivals you enjoy.
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The name of festival is very cute na-Woolly Worm! This festival will be a fun and many people will be able to get earnings from this fest. Good one!