Delaware

This Delaware event made a list of the wackiest US festivals. Have you ever been?

Published

1 year ago

September 21, 2024

This Delaware event made a list of the wackiest US festivals. Have you ever been?

Delaware is known to have some unique happenings, but the one that just got a shoutout on this list of the wackiest fall festivals in the United States might surprise you.

Wacky fall festival in Delaware

There are plenty of odd and whimsical Delaware traditions that out-of-towners, and even some Delawareans, might see as a bit weird. The one that Thrillist, a media company, chose to highlight for its list of the weirdest and wackiest fall festivals in the country is the Sea Witch Festival in Rehoboth Beach.

If you don’t know what a Sea Witch Festival is, Rehoboth Beach prefaces the event with the following eerie blurb:

“Not all witches hang out in caves with their cauldrons; sometimes they have a strong affinity for the wide-open sea.”

In short, it’s to celebrate the lore of the alternative mermaid mentioned above.

This year’s festival runs from 8 a.m. on Oct. 25 to 8 p.m. on Oct. 27. It includes a haunted bonfire, hayrides, a pet-friendly costume parade with nautical floats, a broom-tossing competition and a lantern-lit story time that tells the “true tale” of a ship that sank off the coast of Delaware in 1785.

Oh, and apparently, ghosts will be in attendance …

Weirdest, wackiest fall festivals in the US

Whether you’re a Sea Witch Festival regular or you’ve never attended the event, some of the other festivals on Thrillist’s list make Rehoboth’s celebration look completely ordinary.

Wisconsin State Cow Chip Throw & Festival

Although this takes place on Aug. 30 and Aug. 31, Thrillist added it to the list because it’s “too absurd to skip.” This festival in Prairie du Sac, Wisconsin, stems from the old practice of using dried buffalo chips – poop – as fuel to warm the houses of pioneers.

Now, Wisconsin keeps the spirit alive with its festival that includes music, arts and crafts, magicians, a “cow chip breakfast” and chip throwing.

Arcola Broomcorn Festival

The Arcola Broomcorn Festival in Arcola, Illinois, ran from Sept. 6 through Sept. 8 and celebrated all things related to broomcorn, a plant that can be dried and bound together to make brooms.

Aside from making brooms, festivalgoers could enjoy arts and crafts, live music, a 5K and 10K and a broom-sweeping contest. A parade featuring the Lawn Rangers, a lawn mower drill team that has been a staple event since 1980, also was on the agenda.

World Chicken Festival

The World Chicken Festival in London, Kentucky, runs from Sept. 26 to Sept. 29 in Laurel County, the birthplace of Kentucky Fried Chicken, according to Thrillist.

The festival is four days of fun that includes a “Rooster tail” mullet contest, Colonel Sanders impersonation competitions, live entertainment featuring the Gin Blossoms, carnival rides and the world’s largest stainless-steel skillet.

Nearby in Corbin, the Sanders Café & Museum highlights the 11 herbs and spices of the original KFC recipe and other memorabilia. This location is also on the National Register of Historic Places.

Trailing of the Sheep Festival

The Trailing of the Sheep Festival in Sun Valley, Idaho, runs from Oct. 2 to Oct. 6 and highlights 1,500 sheep as they embark on their annual migration through Main Street in Ketchum.

Event highlights include sheep storytelling, a sheep jam, farm-to-table dinners, wooly items for purchase, sheepdog trials and a Q&A with sheep ranchers.

FireAnt Festival

The FireAnt Festival in Marshall, Texas, is on Oct. 12 and celebrates its 42nd celebration this year.

The festival began in 1982 to heighten morale during a period of economic hardship and, according to Thrillist, the name was given at random just because it sounded nice and fun.

The event is characterized by fire ant mascots; a parade; the Diaper Derby; a chicken chunkin’ contest; a fire ant calling contest; and a gurning contest, which is about making the most horrible and grotesque facial expressions possible.

… To each their own!

Fall fun at the beach: A powwow, greyhounds and crafts: Fall festivals and events at the Delaware beaches

North American Wife Carrying Championship

The North American Wife Carrying Championship in Newry, Maine, on Oct. 12 is self-explanatory.

The sport of wife-carrying began in Finland due to the local legend of a robber stealing food and women from the towns he pillaged. Now, it’s an annual sport competition – in its 23rd year – that requires participants to carry their partners through a dry and muddy 278-yeard obstacle course. Partners can be carried fireman-style, piggyback or in the Estonian carry, which is flipped upside down with legs around the runner’s shoulders.

Wondering why people do this? The winning team wins their partner’s weight in beer and five times their weight in cash.

Bridge Day

Bridge Day in Fayetteville, West Virginia, is on Oct. 19 and celebrates New River Gorge, the 63rd National Park.

The event is held annually on the third Saturday in October and focuses on the allure of jumping off or rappelling down the park’s 876-foot-tall bridge, which BASE jumpers have done since 1980. The bridge is the world’s second-longest arch bridge.

BASE jumping stands for the four categories of fixed objects that can be jumped from: buildings, antennas (radio masts), spans (bridges) and earth (cliffs).

Texas Bigfoot Conference

The Texas Bigfoot Conference in Jefferson, Texas, is on Oct. 18 and Oct. 19 and honors the city’s name as “The Bigfoot Capital of Texas,” according to Thrillist.

Although the location of Bigfoot varies according to witness accounts, the Texas Bigfoot Research Center reports a long history of sightings in the state. The annual conference features dinners, Bigfoot enthusiasts and speakers.

Conference attendees also can stop by the Bigfoot statue in the Port Jefferson History and Nature Center. The area between the train bridge and the entrance is known as “Bigfoot Alley.”

Punkin Chunkin’

Punkin Chunkin’ in Clayton, New York, is on Oct. 19 and leans into medieval fun.

Attendees build their own catapults and trebuchets to launch pumpkins into the St. Lawrence River, with many donning Viking helmets with horns. The pumpkins reach 150 miles per hour and reach at least 1,000 feet. Other activities include a farmers market, live music, a kids’ competition and a barbecue contest.

West Coast Giant Pumpkin Regatta

The West Coast Giant Pumpkin Regatta in Tualatin, Oregon, is on Oct. 20 and is hosted by the Pacific Giant Vegetable Growers, whose goal is to grow “obscenely large vegetables,” according to Thrillist.

The regatta is the main event and features fifteen competitors dressed in costumes as they race in giant hollowed-out pumpkins with a kayak paddle on the Lake of the Commons. Other events are the 5K, a Terminator pumpkin weigh-off and pumpkin golf.

Fall festivals in Delaware: Delaware fall festivals you must hit up in 2024, for kids and adults

Woolly Worm Festival

The Woolly Worm Festival in Banner Elk, North Carolina, is on Oct. 19 and Oct. 20 and celebrates the woolly worm.

Some people believe that the hue of each of the worm’s 13 brown segments will predict how severe the following 13 weeks of winter will be, dubbed the Woolly Worm Forecast. Darker colors signal harsher weather for a given week while lighter colors mean more agreeable conditions.

The festival highlights the tradition and also includes vendors selling pottery, photography and worm houses and hosts a worm race. Winning worms get a cash prize and are used to predict the weather of the upcoming winter.

The Emma Crawford Coffin Races and Festival

In Manitou Springs, Colorado, the Emma Crawford Coffin Races and Festival is on Oct. 26 this year and celebrates Emma Crawford, a woman who was sick with tuberculosis and went to the town for its healing mineral water.

The mineral water did not turn Crawford’s health around and she later died, requesting for her casket to be buried atop a mountain. When Manitou Springs flooded years later, her casket was unearthed and slid down the mountain into the town.

The story inspired the town’s coffin races of today, which feature costumed teams of five racing through the town in heats, hoping to win prizes like “best Emma,” “best coffin” and “best entourage.” Aside from the festival, the town is big into Halloween and hosts movie nights and ghost tours throughout the month.

Tarantula Awareness Festival

The Tarantula Awareness Festival in Coarsegold, California, is on Oct. 30 and aims to educate people about the California Brown Tarantula during spider mating season in October.

Halloween and spider fun come together for events like scream-offs, a costume parade, a rice of spiders, a pumpkin cheesecake contest, a tarantula poem contest and the hairy leg contest for humans.

PA Bacon Fest

The PA Bacon Fest is a two-day festival on Nov. 2 and Nov. 3 in Easton, Pennsylvania, that celebrates the beloved food. Thrillist reports that the event has been named one of the top five bacon fests.

During the festival, attendees will find live entertainment, a bacon-eating contest (complete with a big trophy), a bacon and craft beer pairing, a hog calling contest, a mascot dash for bacon and bacon-related costumes and pig and wiener dog races. Plenty of bacon-themed food will be in store, too.

Got a tip or a story idea? Contact Krys’tal Griffin at kgriffin@delawareonline.com.

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Delaware

Judge lets Delaware’s law requiring a permit to buy handgun begin Sunday

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12 hours ago

November 15, 2025

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Judge lets Delaware’s law requiring a permit to buy handgun begin Sunday

Lawyers for state and gun rights advocates spar during hearing

Beyond the gun advocates’ objections that the law violates the “right to bear arms” guaranteed in the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, they argued during Thursday’s 75-minute hearing that Delaware officials botched the rollout of the permitting process.

State police, who oversee the State Bureau of Identification, did not have an application available until Oct. 28, 19 days before prospective buyers would be required to present a laminated permit similar to a driver’s license to make a purchase.

Since state officials have 30 days to decide on a permit, the gun rights lobby argued in court filings and before Noreika that the delays in opening the application portal could create an unconstitutional de facto ban on purchasing a handgun starting Sunday.

They also asserted that SBI’s requirements should have gone through the state’s copious process to create regulations, which often takes several months and gives residents time to offer comments on proposed rules.

“The government, the state, is treating this natural right [to buy handguns] like it were a government gift, like food stamps,’’ Pileggi said during the hearing. “Due to their lack of planning, they waited until the last minute” to open an application process filled with obstacles for would-be handgun buyers.

“Now they say because a few permits have been issued, [his clients] should be happy and go home,” he added.

Lawyers for the state countered that more than 200 permits have already been issued, though they acknowledged that all but three were approved for law enforcement officers and others exempted from taking the training course or firing live rounds at a shooting range. The state also argued that while regulations can be put in place to implement a law, they are not required.

Noreika, however, said during the hearing that it appeared to her that state police added requirements that were not in the law and normally would require official regulations.

She noted a couple provisions cited by Pileggi that are on the state’s website as “firearms training course guidelines.” Those rules say SBI must approve training courses and instructors. The law does not require such approvals.

Noreika also personalized her inquiry. She speculated that if she had taken a FBI firearms course three years ago, she might think it wasn’t valid since the FBI is not on the state website’s list of approved instructors.

While state attorney Austin Evers said SBI would merely check that the FBI course meets the requirements outlined in the law, Noreika countered that she would have no way of knowing that if she wanted to get a permit, and might think she needed to take a new course, which could take weeks to schedule and complete.

Evers said the state would remove those provisions to clear up any confusion among permit seekers and to remain within the bounds of the law so no official regulations would need to be proposed, reviewed and approved — a process that takes several months.

The state’s lawyer also told the judge that the law and how it’s being implemented is the opposite of a ban and will result in fewer handgun deaths.

“This statute has two core principles: a scheme to allow people to buy and and sell handguns — not a total ban — to address real threats to public safety,’’ Evers said.

Jennings, who attended Thursday’s hearing, said afterward that regardless of what Noreika decided on the injunction issue, she believes the law that was passed in 2024 after a five-year legislative effort will ultimately be upheld.

Jennings said afterward that she didn’t think Noreika would issue an injunction because the judge would first need to determine that the lawsuit had a “likelihood of success on the merits.’’

She said similar permit bills have been upheld in other states — such as in neighboring Maryland — and that in Delaware, “we firmly believe that this law is constitutional and passes muster.”

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Delaware

State Police Investigating Single-Vehicle Fatal Crash in Delmar – Delaware State Police – State of Delaware

Published

1 day ago

November 14, 2025

Press Room

State Police Investigating Single-Vehicle Fatal Crash in Delmar – Delaware State Police – State of Delaware

Date Posted: Friday, November 14th, 2025

Delaware State Police are investigating a single-vehicle fatal crash that occurred yesterday in Delmar.

On November 13, 2025, at approximately 5:12 p.m., a GMC Sierra was traveling northbound on Sussex Highway approaching West Snake Road. For reasons still under investigation, the GMC left the west side of the roadway, crossed the median and entered the southbound lanes of travel. The GMC then exited the west side of the road and struck a tree.

The driver, a 30-year-old man from Georgetown, Delaware, was pronounced dead at the scene. His name is being withheld until his family is notified.

Sussex Highway was closed for approximately 4 hours while the scene was investigated and cleared.

The Delaware State Police Troop 7 Collision Reconstruction Unit continues to investigate this crash. Troopers ask anyone who witnessed the crash or has relevant information to contact Sergeant A. Mitchell at (302) 703-3269. Information may also be provided by sending a private Facebook message to the Delaware State Police or contacting Delaware Crime Stoppers at 1-800-847-3333.

If you or someone you know is a victim or witness of a crime or have lost a loved one to a sudden death and need assistance, the Delaware State Police Victim Services Unit / Delaware Victim Center is available to offer you support and resources 24 hours a day through a toll-free hotline at 1-800-VICTIM-1 (1-800-842-8461). You may also email the Victim Services Unit at DSP_VictimServicesMail@delaware.gov.

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After police assist ICE in Seaford, ACLU asks Delaware governor for guidance

Published

2 days ago

November 13, 2025

Press Room

After police assist ICE in Seaford, ACLU asks Delaware governor for guidance

The ACLU of Delaware is asking Gov. Matt Meyer for clearer rules on when local police can assist U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The request follows an incident where Delaware State and Seaford police helped ICE detain a man in Seaford.
It remains unclear if ICE had a judicial warrant for the arrest.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Delaware is calling on Gov. Matt Meyer to issue more guidance on when state and local law enforcement can assist U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement after Delaware State and Seaford police did just that.

The two agencies responded to ICE’s request for assistance in detaining Carlos Chag-Gonzalez outside the Seaford Lowe’s the morning of Nov. 6, according to an ACLU DE news release.

“It is still unclear whether ICE possessed a valid judicial warrant for Chag-Gonzalez, nor is it known if state and local law enforcement requested to see a warrant,” the Nov. 13 release said. ICE, Delaware State Police and the Seaford Police Department did not immediately respond when asked if they had or saw a warrant.

ACLU DE Campaign Manager Helen Salita signed the letter to Meyer. Without evidence of a warrant and purported witness statements that indicate there was no public safety emergency, the letter said, the incident raises concerns about whether police violated previous ICE guidance from the governor’s office.

The letter asks Meyer’s office to detail their next steps in creating new guidance by Nov. 20.

Previous guidance

The letter pointed out Meyer’s office has made previous efforts in response “to public outcry to not support the federal administration’s immigration enforcement program.”

Earlier this year, Misty Seemans, a deputy legal counsel with the governor’s office, told Spotlight Delaware’s José Ignacio Castañeda Perez state law enforcement resources would not be used “to effectuate federal administration policies” unless there is a valid court warrant and “an exigent circumstance where the community is at risk.”

And after Camden police entered into an agreement with ICE in April, which they later withdrew, Delaware enacted a law prohibiting agreements between law enforcement and ICE.

Most recently, the Wilmington City Council passed a unanimous resolution “opposing collaboration between the city and ICE,” the letter pointed out.

“However, the incident in Seaford illustrates that despite these meaningful steps, the rules around when and how our state and local law enforcement cooperate with ICE remain murky,” the letter said. “That is why your office must act immediately to issue firm guidance outlining how all Delaware agencies interact with ICE.”

“Without clear guidance, inconsistent responses from state and local agencies risk undermining public safety by decreasing trust in law enforcement and diverting resources away from programs that keep our communities safe. We also run the risk of Delaware being unintentionally dragged in to the federal administration’s immigration enforcement regime under backdoor, misleading pretenses that state and local law enforcement must respond to public safety threats where none actually exist.”

What police, ICE say happened

Chaj-Gonzalez was arrested after resisting officers from ICE Baltimore’s Salisbury sub-office, a Nov. 7 statement provided by ICE spokesperson Casey Latimer said. (Note: The ACLU has spelled the last name as “Chag,” while police and ICE have spelled it “Chaj.” We are working to clarify the correct spelling.)

ICE sought Chaj-Gonzalez because he is an “illegal alien” from Guatemala and has unlawfully entered the U.S. 10 times, the statement said. He has been issued a “notice to appear” and will remain in ICE custody, according to the statement.

Latimer did not respond to requests for Chaj’s age and other information.

Delaware State Police spokesperson India Sturgis said her agency responded to the incident “following a report that a federal agent had been assaulted,” but the ICE statement said no officers were injured. Sturgis later said Delaware State Police happened to be in a neighboring parking lot when Seaford police were dispatched to the incident.

“Given our close proximity, we responded to assist. As far as our threshold, our troopers assist any agency or individual when help is needed,” she said.

A Seaford Police Department news release said Chaj-Gonzalez “allegedly physically resisted federal agents, before fleeing and hiding under a nearby utility trailer,” the news release said.

Seaford officers responded and remained at the scene until more federal agents arrived, the release said. They also assisted in moving the trailer under which the man was hiding so agents could take him into custody, the department added.

The suspect “obtained a minor injury” while being taken into custody, the release said, and was treated by Seaford police util EMS arrived. Seaford police contacted the owner of the trailer but had no other involvement, the release said.

“ICE claimed it was a minor injury,” the ACLU letter said, “However, a statement from a witness said, ‘they busted some [guy’s] head open’ and that ‘a lady cop was putting pressure on his head.’” Neither the letter nor the news release provided the name of the witness.

“I can’t confirm at this time whether or not this was our first assist for ICE,” Seaford Police Department spokesman Tyler Justice said via email Nov. 6. “In this situation, we were requested by them to respond to assist which is generally our threshold for any federal agency or local partners. We do not have any information as to what grounds the individual was being detained on.”

On Nov. 7, the Seaford Police Department released another statement on social media, titling it “incident clarification.”

“We understand in this highly politicized environment that whatever we do, some are going to think we were right and some are going to think we were wrong. So the most we can do for the community is to try and be as honest and transparent as possible,” the statement said.

“We do not participate in civil immigration enforcement. We take our responsibility for the safety and security of ALL of our community members very seriously. However, when situations involving federal partners turns into a criminal investigation, as it did yesterday, we are legally allowed to and will assist, as we would for any criminal investigation within our jurisdiction.”

“(Delaware State and Seaford police’s) actions during the operation led directly to ICE’s ability to detain Chag-Gonzalez. For many Delawareans, especially immigrant communities, state and local law enforcement’s actions equate to undertaking an active role in immigration enforcement,” the ACLU’s letter to Meyer said. “These actions violate community trust, reignite fear and anxiety, and threaten the goodwill our state has built between community members and law enforcement through actions like banning (police and ICE) agreements.”

Delaware is at a crossroads, according to the letter.

“Will we allow our state and local law enforcement to continue to play by the old rules even as ICE terrorizes our communities, or will we hold our state agencies accountable for ensuring that Delaware is not willingly or unwillingly aiding ICE?” the letter said.

“We must be clear about where Delaware stands and ensure our guidelines reflect our state’s values and guarantee that Delaware remains a place where all people — regardless of immigration or citizenship status — can live and thrive without fear.”

You can read the full letter at aclu-de.org.

Shannon Marvel McNaught reports on southern Delaware and beyond. Reach her at smcnaught@gannett.com or on Facebook.

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