Raw States
Woolly Worm Festival
Banner Elk, NC · Quirky
- When
- October 17–18, 2026
- Where
- Downtown Banner Elk · Banner Elk · NC
- Cost
- Not confirmed
- Status
- Confirmed from the organizer's published schedule
Downtown Banner Elk fills with craft vendors, food booths, and live music each October for North Carolina's best-known winter-forecasting tradition, in which woolly bear caterpillars race to determine the town's official winter weather prediction. The festival draws visitors from across the High Country each fall.
The history within reach
- Woolly Worm Festivalsame spot
Downtown Banner Elk fills with craft vendors, food booths, and live music each October for North Carolina's best-known winter-forecasting tradition, in which woolly bear caterpillars race to determine the town's official winter weather prediction.
A gathering of Scottish clans at the base of Grandfather Mountain, with caber toss and other Highland athletics, pipe bands, and dance competitions.
- The Linn Cove Viaduct5.7 mi
The last section of the Blue Ridge Parkway to be finished, 52 years after work began, because nobody could agree how to cross Grandfather Mountain without wrecking it.
NASCAR's marquee night race under the lights at Bristol's half mile concrete bowl, one of the sport's most anticipated dates.
A logging railroad so slow uphill that crews named it the Creeper became thirty four miles of rail trail, most of it downhill from Whitetop if you take the shuttle, which almost everyone does.