American Festivals Project

Here’s another recap from two weeks ago in the beautiful Appalachian mountains of North Carolina.  We were in Banner Elk to photograph the Wooly Worm Festival, and were joined by friends for some site seeing on the Blue Ridge Parkway.  Below, Matt Rogers and myself getting some fresh air..

It was cold, cold, cold in the mountains.  We woke up to a thick frost covering the airstream.

Friends from Roanoke, Charlotte, and China–united!

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Wooly Worm Festival–Banner Elk, N.C.

The Banner Elk Wooly Worm Festival, held annually in October, is an event in which thousandths of contestants race wooly worms to determine the one, true caterpillar for predicting a winter weather forecast.  The wooly bear caterpillar has thirteen segments along its body that corresponds to the thirteen weeks of winter.  A lighter brown stripe means a mild week of winter, while a dark black stripe means a harsh, cold week.

One may bring their own wooly worm or buy one at the festival.  If you are a tourist, you might be duped into paying $10 for ‘a worm and a house’ outside the festival gates (inside the gates, a worm is only a dollar).  Who could imagine there was a black market for wooly worms?

Many people have techniques for prepping their worm before a race.  Due to the cold temperatures, warming the worms seemed to be the technique of choice.

About twenty people race in a heat, placing their worms below a designated line.

It’s off to the races once the worms are on the line!  Some contestants try blowing on the worm or clapping behind it to speed them up.  When it comes down to it though, I think it’s pure luck which worm comes out on top.  There are some pretty funny reactions throughout the heats.

Individual heat winners.

The winner for this year was the young Kurstin Hartsell, who seemed more terrified of her new-found fame than she was excited about the $1,000 cash prize.  Below, the official “doctors” and “weather forecasters” inspect the winning wooly worm.

My favorite portrait from the weekend.