One year after Hurricane Helene, Banner Elk's beloved Woolly Worm Festival returns-raising money for local kids with worm races, winter folklore, and small-town grit.

Banner Elk

The Woolly Worm Festival in Banner Elk, North Carolina, has resumed after a previous cancellation caused by Hurricane Helene, which severely damaged local infrastructure. Organizers and community members worked together to restore the event, highlighting the area's resilience and determination.

The festival features races involving woolly worms, with the winner earning a cash prize and the title of official winter forecaster for the Appalachian High Country. The event attracts around 20,000 attendees and is celebrated for its quirky tradition and community spirit.

Fast & furry-ous: Woolly Worm festival roars back after Helene

I can vividly remember the Tuesday before it hit my garage flooded, which was so rare last September. This part of the North Carolina High Country was hit hard from Hurricane Helene. The full infrastructure was annihilated. All of us were broken. The popular Woolly Worm Festival, with its cult like following, had to be canceled. It wasn't on the radar whatsoever that the festival would be affected 13 months later, Victoria Bauman is about to throw the biggest party of her career. We got Carolina wireless trying to fix our Wi-Fi down here as we speak. No one has shied away of the call of duty of the work. Move over Puxatawney Phil. There's a lot on the line. The last worm standing dubbed the fast and the furriest wins $1000 and becomes the official winter forecaster for the Appalachian High Country. You absolutely love it in you embrace it. You drink the Kool-Aid. The return of the Woolly Worm Festival symbolizes hope and resilience all wrapped up in hundreds of fuzzy forecasters who wiggle skyward in front of 20,000 worm watchers and coaches. The darker the segment, the colder, the snowier, the icier it is. It's close to 90% accuracy rate after the checkered flag. The worms are released back into the wild soon flying high as Tiger Moss in the Carolina South. It's a big deal. As Tiger Moss in the Carolina Sun, I get really emotional because it's it's quirky. It's silly. I think when you're little, everything seems possible and let's have a worm tell us the weather in Benner Elk, North Carolina. It creates magic. I'm Leslie Hudson for Accuweather.

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