Delaware
This Delaware event made a list of the wackiest US festivals. Have you ever been?
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New Jersey farmers anticipate a strong apple and pumpkin harvest after a great growing season.
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!
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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.
Delaware
Delaware high school football scoreboard for Week 4
Delaware high school football: Video from Woodbridge win over Howard
Woodbridge and Howard combined for 15 fumbles, with three being returned for touchdowns in the Blue Raiders’ 21-20 victory on Friday night.
Twenty-one games are set for Week 4 of Delaware high school football.
Please follow the games with the live scoreboard below, then come back for our roundups of the games.
Also, look for photos and videos of your favorite players by following @DEGameDay on Instagram.
DELAWARE HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL 2024:
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Tight battles: Our experts predict winners, scores of Week 4 Delaware HS football games
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Everything you need to know about the season
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Delaware
Delaware’s newest Chick-fil-A has set an opening date
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Yes, Delaware, you’re getting another Chick-fil-A.
On Thursday, Oct. 3, the newest location of the cultishly popular fried chicken spot will open at 4008 N. Dupont Highway, just south of Wilmington near Minquadale.
The opening date underscores Chick-Fil-A’s ever-increasing speed at plunking down new locations. It was just four months ago that construction fencing first came up on North Dupont Highway, in front of a self-storage facility.
The new location will be 5,400 square feet, according to plans submitted with the county, with two drive-thru lanes – a feature that’s become commonplace at fast food restaurants across the country to accommodate advance orders from phone apps and delivery websites. Chick-fil-A’s dedicated phone-app lane is called Mobile Thru.
A nearby Chick-fil-A location at Governor’s Square in Bear has also submitted plans with the county to demolish and rebuild with a double-drive thru.
Even before opening, the location has been busy.
The North Dupont Chick-fil-A has been busy delivering 50 Chick-fil-A sandwiches a day to nearby businesses, after a Facebook contest designed to test out potential delivery sites.
The first winner was apparently the staff of Wilmington Airport, who called it their “clucky day” in an Instagram post last week, while posing for a picture alongside North Dupont franchisee Angelo Santos.
When it opens, the North Dupont location will be Delaware’s 16th location and also the closest Chick-fil-A to the city limits of Wilmington, which remains Chickless.
The new restaurant will bring 130 new jobs, according to a company press release, and plans to participate in a Chick-fil-A Shared Table program donating surplus food to shelters, food banks, soup kitchens and other nonprofits.
North Dupont’s franchisee, Angelo Santos, grew up in the Delaware County town of Ridley and held down his first job at Chick-fil-A at the age of 16.
A decade later, he wrote, he’s a franchise owner in Delaware.
“I am most looking forward to being a beacon of hope in the New Castle community,” Santos wrote in a statement. “I want to bring real change by providing career opportunities and leadership growth to my team members.”
In celebration of the North Dupont opening, parent Chick-fil-A, Inc. has donated $25,000 to nonprofit Feeding America, which partners with the Food Bank of Delaware. The restaurant will also award a prize of free Chick-fil-A entrees for a year to 100 “local heroes” making an impact in the New Castle area.
Chick-Fil-A will open on Oct. 3 at 4008 N. Dupont Highway. Hours are 6:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday to Saturday. Drive-thru open until 10 p.m. Details at chick-fil-a.com.
Delaware
Hackers target Delaware public library system, investigation underway
Since last week, Delaware residents haven’t been able to use computers or the Internet at any of the state’s public libraries due to a cyber attack.
Signs are plastered on doors at different libraries warning people not to log into the Wi-Fi and sharing that all PCs are out of order.
State library officials told NBC10 that a ransomware attack has taken all public library internet options off the table.
“It’s almost always some sort of phishing email or some sort of social engineering is what we call it when you trick a user into doing something,” said Matt Barnett, CEO of cyber security firm Sevn-X.
Barnett, who is not involved in the Delaware investigation, adds that he thinks the hackers are probably in Russia or Eastern Europe and that they weren’t likely trying to mess with Delaware libraries because they had some vendetta.
Barnett adds that he believes the hackers just put out phishing emails all over the world waiting for a hit, and they got one in Delaware, hoping the state will pay up.
“When it comes to ransomware, it’s all about low-hanging fruit for these attackers. They’ll go after anybody and everybody they can,” Barnett said.
NBC10 asked state officials if any personal information was taken during this attack but did not get any response.
Currently, visitors can still check out books and use other library services.
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