This Is The Weirdest Fall Festival In Kentucky, And We're Here For It
By Sarah McCosham|Published August 18, 2022
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Sarah McCosham
Author
I write like it's my job - because it is! I have a Master's in English and love words: crossword puzzles, Scrabble games, Wordle, and, of course, good, old-fashioned books.
I'm a writer and editor at OnlyInYourState, and a contributing writer at Cincinnati Magazine. I love the Great Outdoors and am endlessly awestruck by this beautiful country of ours. Coffee keeps me going, yoga keeps me sane, my kids keep me grounded, and my writing keeps me inspired.
Fall festival season is upon us, and while we’re all for the standard litany of pumpkin patches, hay rides, and Halloween towns, we also invite you to take a walk on the wild side this season. And by “wild,” we mean embracing the cute, furry, cuddly unofficial mascot of fall in Kentucky… the woolly worm! (Bet you didn’t think we were headed there, did you?) In Beattyville, Kentucky, the Woolly Worm Festival is an annual fall festival that’s the pride and joy of the town, not only providing a big boost of tourism but also a captivating and, admittedly very cute, claim to fame.
In Central Kentucky's Lee County, Beattyville is a small town located at the confluence of the North and South Forks of the Kentucky River.
Home to less than 1,500 residents, Beattyville is most certainly a small town, but every fall, it puts on an annual festival that's one of the best, albeit weirdest, in Kentucky...
You see, the woolly worm is believed to forecast the weather for the coming winter season. A woolly worm’s body has 13 segments -- each corresponding to a week in winter. If a segment is light brown, that means the week will be mild. If a segment is black, that means a harsh, cold week.
The worm acted as a weather predictor for many old time farmers who would harvest crop and cut firewood in preparation for the upcoming winter; and, in fact, there are many "Woolly Worm" festivals held throughout the U.S. each fall!
This event, now in its 35th year, is a huge boon to the local economy, bringing new business, opportunities, and tourism to the area. In 2021, 91% of attendees reported attending the festival at least once before, demonstrating the strong pull and local appeal of Beattyville's Woolly Worm Festival.
It's the weirdest, most wholly, whoolly wonderful, fall festival in Kentucky!
Weirdest fall festival in Kentucky? Absolutely. A must-visit? Absolutely! Visit the Beattyville website to learn more about the annual Woolly Worm Festival, which, for 2022, happens Oct. 21-23 right along the town’s Main Street.
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