Funky Fests

Lean into your NC-ness with these six wacky NC festivals.

Humble brag: North Carolina boasts its fair share of claims to fame—from the best BBQ joints (sorry, not sorry, SC) to the home of NASCAR to luminary lighthouses and some of the Southeast’s most majestic mountains. And beyond the fab, we’ve got plenty of funk—and a flurry of offbeat NC festivals to fete the quirky legacies that “keep NC weird”—in the best way.

So whether you’re a local looking to lean into your state pride or a newbie hoping to punch your NC’er card, you’re gonna wanna save the date for these six homegrown fests. Stay weird, y’all!

NC Pickle Festival | Mount Olive

Um, NC is kind of a big ~dill~. Duh. Pucker up at this juicy Mount Olive fest in the pickle motherland—home to the eponymous Mount Olive Pickle Company, aka the largest privately owned pickler in the land. Find sweet, sour and everything pickled, plus live music, performances and the Tour De Pickle. Then up your pickle game and trade pickleball for a pickle-eating contest or relish the moment with the Pickle Princess Pageant. April 26, ncpicklefest.org

Benson Mule Days | Benson

Think Derby Day, but rural NC style. Applaud the backbone of NC’s agrarian past and elevate these oft overlooked four-legged friends to “Derby-Hollywood status” once again during this four-day fest feteing the resilient donkey-horse offspring. All hail the town’s main draft animal with rodeos, mule competitions, food, carnival rides, parades and concerts. Yeehaw! Sept. 26–29, bensonmuledays.com

Woolly Worm Festival | Banner Elk

Fuzzy forecasting worms? It’s an NC thing. Fun fact: Western NCers have long relied on the 13 bands on the woolly worm (aka the larvae form of the Isabella tiger moth) to predict the severity of winter. Weird but true. Pay this squirmy lil portender its due with a crawl over to this mam-moth fest to enjoy ~170+ vendors, live tunes and—wait for it—the great worm race. The winning worm is given the honor of being winter’s official meteorologist, plus a huge sum of cash. Think you can dig it? Oct. 19–20, woollyworm.com

Denim Days | Erwin

Cute jeans? The Denim Days event is cute jeans. The unassuming “Denim Capital of the World” clothed the globe for over a century thanks to the Erwin Cotton Mill—and although the mill is no longer operational, visitors and locals alike can still relive the town’s former glory days with “a pair of jeans that fit just right.” NTM enjoy local vendors, vintage automobile displays, fare, and a lineup of contests and pageants. Overall (had to), sounds like a good time (!). Date TBD, erwin-nc.org

Whirligig Festival | Wilson

Fun fact: NC folk artist Vollis Simpson was commissioned to build whirligigs (read: kinetic sculptures) to display at the 1996 Olympic games. Spin right ’round to the fest honoring this iconic artist for a celebration stacked with whirlies, food, crafts and a post-fest concert. If you’re inspired, give the whirligig-building competition an, ahem, whirl and shoot your shot at the grand prize. After all, what goes around, comes around. Nov. 2–3, whirligigfestivalnc.org

The Great Outhouse Races | Ski Sapphire Valley

You may be privy to find that racing outhouses is popular across the U.S.—and shocked to find NC pushed outhouse fans to the edge of their seats (!) and traded wheels and roads for skis and snow. The more you know. Now, to race at The Great, one person skis or “uses” (iykyk) the structure while others push the outhouse from behind. And if steering a portable toilet downhill isn’t your thing, get your snack on and play games on the sidelines as you watch the toilets zoom by. You gotta go! Feb. 15, skisapphirevalley.com