Since I’ve moved down south, I have wanted to attend the WNC Bigfoot Festival in Marion, NC, so I was elated this year to find myself completely free that weekend.
I’ve been somewhat obsessed with Bigfoot as a concept ever since inhaling Wild Thing, a Bigfoot-centric podcast hosted by Laura Krantz, who approaches learning about the world’s best hide-and-seek player with a healthy mix of skepticism and respect, and my main takeaway from the podcast (besides for wanting to do a deep dive into the world of Bigfoot erotica…something I’ve yet to fully commit to since like Jessie Spano, it both excites…and scares me) is that there is a healthy amount of Bigfoot hunters who are scientists and academics, the kinds of people whose entire existence is learning more about our crazy world, and that to them, an undiscovered humanoid/ape creature is far more feasible than say, a Loch Ness Monster or aliens. I also enjoy yeti paraphernalia. I’m the proud owner of three Bigfoot tee shirts, a Bigfoot sweatshirt, and I have two pieces of Bigfoot art in my home. The latter part of my bigfoot interest, the materialistic one, was a harbinger of what the Marion Bigfoot Festival would entail.
In all fairness, the festival has two parts: the Friday conference and the Saturday festival. The conference, held at McDowell Technical Community College, is $10.00 and consists of Bigfoot speakers. The more highly advertised festival, which occurs in downtown Marion on Saturday, consists of speakers and vendors, including a town hall meeting where “individuals can share their sasquatch stories in front of an audience.” That’s kind of what I was excited about. I wanted some weirdness. I wanted to hear someone’s tale of encountering bigfoot and not doubt the tale as much as I wanted—I wanted to believe!
When I arrived in Marion circa noon, I found blocks and blocks of tented vendors, which is par for the course when attending any of these street fairs. It may have been wishful thinking or simply not reading the event website close enough before the trek to Marion, but I was let down that none of the tents had exhibits, close encounter tales, and other educational content, just rows and rows of people trying to sell you things.
Bigfoot mugs, lawn ornaments, tee shirts, art, and face painting were there. There were also other extraterrestrial/supernatural offerings like light-up alien heads, ghost bathmats, and a whole tent dedicated to Mothman paraphernalia. There was also your standard street fair finds like candles, hot sauces, jerky, and wine. There were also more Trump-themed tents (and all-around Trump 2024 support) than I ever want.
It wasn’t exactly what I’d envisioned, but it was fun and made me want to return to check out Marion sometime. My friends and I ended up at two local breweries after going down the rows of vendors, and at 2:30 or so figured we’d had enough and would head closer to home (we voted it too hot to wait for the town hall at 3:45.
I was the only one who had any real complaints about the shopping vs. exploratory nature of the festival. I was also the only one to spend any real money in the form of a brand new Bigfoot woodcarving, two Bigfoot Christmas ornaments, a mug, and a magnet.
AshevilleExplorer 