38th Annual Woolly Worm Festival

From 38th Annual Woolly Worm Festival Website:

38th Annual Woolly Worm Festival
Will Be Held on OCTOBER 17th AND 18th, 2015

Downtown Banner Elk, North Carolina

The 38th Annual Woolly Worm Festival takes place the 3rd weekend of October 17 & 18, 2015 in the quaint mountain town of Banner Elk North Carolina. We think its the perfect time to share some tips that will make your experience a good one while at the festival and getting to the festival. Yes there is an admission cost to get into the festival because all of proceeds are given back to our community to enhance our schools, childrens programs, and to promote businesses and tourism in Avery County. Yes, there is ample parking, but the free parking is on a first come basis and other parking by organizations for a minimal fee please no pets inside festival gates, except Woolly Worms, of course. Doggie day care is available outside of the gates at the main entrance. There are no ATMs on festival grounds so be sure to stop at one of the bank ATM machines on your way. Admission is $5.00 for adults, $3.00 for children 6-12, under 5 years old, free. What is there to do once we get inside the festival gates? Of course wace your woolly worm! It is $5.00 to wace your worm and if you didnt find one along one of the many back roads before you get here, dont worry the PTO will have them for sale inside the gate by the main gate information booth. Be sure to arrive early as the Worm Wace Wegistration fills up quickly. What a great time to think of the holidays and purchase great wares from our handcrafted juried artists from fun items to those for decorating your house with amazing furniture, and who wouldnt love a nice piece of jewelry or pottery under the Christmas tree. There are inflatables rides, live music and dance teams Tickets can be purchased online at ********.*** so there is no need to stand in line unless you wish too. Remember the winning woolly on Saturday has the esteemed honor of predicting the High Country weather and wins a huge pot of $$$ If you are very lucky your Woolly Worm will share its $1000.00 cash prize with its owner. Cant make it to the festival on Saturday not to worry we begin the fun on Sunday at 9am until 4pm. Call the Avery County Chamber at (***) ***-**** for more information. The fun starts Saturday morning at 9am and the woolly worm waces begin shortly after with Mr. Woolly Worm and Merryweather leading the fun!

A little history of how this whole festival got started.

Back in the late 1970s, the editor of the now-defunct Mountain Living Magazine, Jim Morton, was preparing to include a Woolly Worm Forecast in the winter issue of the magazine. He photographed the first Woolly Worm he saw to use in formulating the prediction and illustrating his story, but the next day he saw a second worm that looked completely different from the!

Thats when it struck me that we needed some formal procedure to use to decide which was going to be the official worm for making the winter forecast, said Morton.