Every October, Banner Elk hosts one of the most endearingly eccentric events in the Appalachians: the Woolly Worm Festival, a two-day competition in which hundreds of woolly bear caterpillars race up lengths of string held by their handlers. The winner earns the title of Official Woolly Worm and is used to forecast the coming winter's severity — a tradition rooted in old Appalachian folk wisdom.
The festival draws tens of thousands of visitors to a town that most of them have never otherwise visited. There are craft stalls, food vendors, live music, and a great deal of good-natured argument about the predictive abilities of caterpillars. The timing coincides with peak fall color in the high country, so even if the worms leave you cold, the scenery will not.