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Tea’s Weird Week: Hot Cryptid Fall (Cryptid Fests, Part 2)
Back in May, I was inspired to write a listing of cryptid-themed festivals across the country, but I found so many that I decided to split it into two parts. Here’s a listing of celebrations of cryptids and folklore that covers the rest of August through October.
Fearsome Folklore Festival (Aug. 23)
Murfreesboro, TN
This one doesn’t focus on a particular entity but is a free, “family friendly folklore and cryptid themed celebration.” Speakers, live music, cryptid drawing workshops, and a petting zoo– I’m assuming the zoo is of known animals and not cryptids. Both Squonkapalooza and this one are created by Cryptid Comforts.
More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/1256884292699296
Mothman Festival (Sept. 20-21)
Point Pleasant, WV
The grandpappy of monster fests, this one celebrates the Mothman sightings in Point Pleasant in the late 1960s. Since then Point Pleasant has gone all-in on Mothman, with a famous statue, museum, and this annual fest that features music, vendors, and guest speakers. I attended Mothman Fest and wrote a chapter about my experiences in my book Monster Hunters (2015). The first thing I saw upon arriving was a group of clog dancers dressed as the Men in Black, dancing to Will Smith’s song from his movie of the same name. It was fantastic.
More info: https://www.mothmanfestival.com/
Van Meter Visitor Festival (Sept. 27)
Van Meter, Iowa
Celebrating a series of sightings of a large, bat or pterodactyl-like creature that swooped over the skies of Van Meter. This fest has rolled out since 2013 and features a special walking tour, guest speakers, and more.
More info: https://www.facebook.com/vanmetervisitorfestival
Cryptid Block Party (Oct. 4)
Covington, KY
A celebration of all cryptids, great and small. This event has vendors, food, art, edutainment, and my favorite: antics.
More info: https://cryptidcov.blog/
Beast of Bray Road Presentation & Hay Ride (Oct.4)
Elkhorn, WI
In the early 1990s, reports began to roll in about sightings of a werewolf-like creature running around the farm lanes of Elkhorn. I also wrote about this magnificent cryptid in my books Monster Hunters and Wisconsin Legends & Lore. Big bonus points on this one for offering a hay ride!
More info: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1998619394295140
Goatman Festival (Oct. 10-11)
Louisville, KY
Old Goaty gets around, there’s a legend of a Goatman here in Wisconsin, but a more infamous version come from Kentucky. The Pope Lick Monster, a goat-humanoid creature, is said to appear if you cross a train track trestle bridge over Pope Lick Creek. Please do not attempt– several people have died after venturing out on the unsafe bridge.
This fest has guest speakers, tours, movies, music, and a haunted attraction with the Pope Lick Monster itself.
More info: https://mostfunyoueverhad.com/goatmanfest/
Goblin Con (Oct. 17-18)
Hopkinsville, KY
I love this story from 1955, another Kentucky tale– in Hopkinsville 70 years ago, a UFO sighting was followed by a group of 5 men and 7 children claiming that their farm was invaded by goblin-like extra-terrestrials that they kept at bay with gunfire for hours. Aw, they look kinda cute to me.
This fest has 70 vendors, speakers, panels, workshops, etc. More info: https://www.goblinconky.com/home
Rougarou Fest (Oct.17-19)
Houma, LA
The Rougarou is a cajun werewolf story and this festival is a big one that seems like a fun mix of folklore and Louisiana culture. Carnival rides, costume contest and parade, a howling contest, food and drink, a haunted house, a “Ghouls on the Run” race, and some tasty cajun music.
See also: “TWW: What the Rougarou Do“
More info: https://rougaroufest.org/
Green Eyes Festival (Oct.18)
Chickamauga, GA
Ole Green Eyes is a story of supernatural folklore from the Chickamauga region of Georgia, a ghostly entity with glowing green eyes. Vendors, music, a scavenger hunt, and tabletop roleplaying games will kick off this first year event.
More info: https://www.greeneyesfestival.com/
And a shameless self-plug: I’m the director of Milwaukee Krampusnacht, happening Sunday Dec. 7 this year.
Website: www.milwaukeekrampusnacht.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/milwaukeekrampusnacht
Tea’s Weird Week: Hot Cryptid Summer (Part 1)
Local legends have drawn tourist dollars for decades, attracting curious legend trippers. Celebrations like West Virginia’s Mothman Festival (Sept. 20-21) and the Ohio Bigfoot Conference (which happened earlier this month) draw big crowds, but in the last few years the number of festivals celebrating lesser known cryptids have grown. Frogman Fest (which happened in March) in Loveland, Ohio, for example, was inspired by an odd case of a 4-foot-tall frog sighting in 1972. I really love to see towns across the country embrace these strange stories and have some pride in them! I decided to list out some summer cryptid fests for all you legend trippers. This column has listings May through August, I’ll write a part 2 of this in August to list more taking place end of summer and into fall.
This is by no means an exhaustive list. If this sort of thing is your jam, I recommend signing up for Sharon Hill’s Pop Cryptid Spectator Substack, which explores representations of “pop cryptozoology” including updates on cryptid themed events.
Hodag Heritage Festival (May 17)
Rhinelander, WI
Wisconsin’s favorite cryptid, the Hodag, dates back to a hoax from the 1890s by town prankster Eugene Shepard, which evolved to become the love and pride of Rhinelander. I wrote more about this for Milwaukee Magazine last year: https://www.milwaukeemag.com/what-is-the-hodag-rhinelander/
Hodag Heritage Festival has been around about five years now and has grown quite a bit. The line-up for this Saturday looks really fun: a pancake breakfast, talks related to folklore, a Hodag calling contest, and much more. It’s organized in part by The Hodag Store. More info: https://www.rhinelanderchamber.com/hodagheritagefestival
Grafton Monster Festival (June 13-14)
Grafton, WV
West Virginia is one of the country’s most cryptid-dense states. Mothman of Point Pleasant is the most well-known, but there’s a lot of other strange creatures out of time and space running around there. Take, for example, the Grafton Monster, a cryptid described as being 7-9 feet tall with white, seal-like skin, and no discernable head, but a face peering from the creature’s chest. It was said to give a loud, deep bellow. There were several sightings around Grafton, WV in June of 1964.
More info on the 2nd Annual Grafton Monster Festival, organized by The Grafton Monster Museum: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61563258026085
Big Muddy Monster Festival (June 21)
Murphysboro, IL
Also known as the “Murphysboro Mud Monster,” this Bigfoot creature described as being slathered in mud, was first seen by a couple getting hot and heavy parked on a lover’s lane in southern Illinois in 1973. Several other people claimed to see– and smell– the stinky cryptid. Big Muddy has since become an iconic symbol of Murphysboro. More info: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100094542990087
Veggie Man Day (July 13)
Fairmont, WV
Another West Virginian cryptid and a strange one. The “Vegetable Man” was a humanoid entity that looked to be made out of plants that was allegedly encountered by a West Virginian hunting in the woods in 1968. The first Veggie Man Day is taking place at the Frank & Jane Gabor West Virginia Folklife Center. More: https://www.facebook.com/events/s/veggie-man-day-2025/1177423897211539
Squonkapalooza (Aug. 2)
Johnstown, PA
Based on Pennsylvanian lumberjack lore, the Squonk is said to be a butt ugly cryptid that is constantly weeping over their own ugly appearance. Aw, poor Squonk– I like you just the way you are. Like all of the festivals I’m listing, Squonkapalooza is a nice mix of craft/art vendors, presentations, and entertainment. Check out more: https://squonkapalooza.com/
Fearsome Folklore Festival (Aug. 23)
Murfreesboro, TN
This one doesn’t focus on a particular entity but is a free, “family friendly folklore and cryptid themed celebration.” Speakers, live music, cryptid drawing workshops, and a petting zoo– I’m assuming the zoo is of known animals and not cryptids. Both Squonkapalooza and this one are created by Cryptid Comforts.
More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/1256884292699296
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Please Clap Dept.: Speaking of festivals, this one isn’t cryptid related, but I’m co-organizer of typewriter/ innovation/ writing celebration QWERTYFEST MKE. We are launching fundraising next week and need your help to meet our goals. Stay tuned!
Next week on TWW: Apocalypse Every Show Now. Want TWW delivered to your inbox? You can sign up for my Substack HERE. Follow me on: Facebook Bluesky Instagram
Tea’s Weird Week: My Chicago Mothman eBook is Live!
Years in the making, I’m glad to say that an eBook project of mine is finally done and out. Chicago Mothman: A History and Cultural Study of a Monster Case contains three pieces. “Chicago Mothman: The Story of Red-eyed Creatures and Green-eyed Monsters” is a repackaging of my two-part article for Fortean Times magazine (a British publication). It ran in their February and March issues. “A Strange Door Opens” is an oral history style writing, in which the investigators in the Chicago Mothman case explain how they got interested in paranormal investigation to begin with. “Mothman: A Cultural Study” is an essay looking at all the ways Mothman has become a pop icon. Plus an Introduction to all this by Yours Truly.
The eBook is 86 pages and is $3.99 (or free on Kindle Unlimited). All monies raised go to the Krulos Lunch Fund so I can get something to eat. Just click here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BZY598JX/ref=sr_1_2
I’ll be talking about this project and other adventures from my writing career on Sunday, April 16, 4-6pm at Lion’s Tooth.
Follow me on: Substack//Facebook Group//Twitter//Instagram
My latest books are:
Brady Street Pharmacy: Stories and Sketches (2021, VA Press)
American Madness: The Story of the Phantom Patriot and How Conspiracy Theories Hijacked American Consciousness (2020, Feral House)
Tea’s Weird Week: A Tale of Two Chupacabras
There are two types of Chupacabras within you. Let’s discuss.
Well, actually, maybe I should back up. When my book Monster Hunters was released in 2015, I decided to celebrate by creating a Milwaukee Paranormal Conference. We needed a snappy logo and I decided on a Chupacabra. But why– Chupacabras has no connection to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, right? It’s legend is found in Puerto Rico, Mexico, Colombia, and southern states like Texas and New Mexico.
I’ll tell you why. Chupacabras are 100% certified badass, that’s why. That’s it. Plus artist David Beyer had drawn an incredibly badass Chup for Monster Hunters, for a chapter titled “The Slaying of the Chupacabras,” so we recycled that art into the logo. I wanted to switch up art every year, so subsequent MPC Chup logos were designed by artists Catherine Palmeno (2016), Alex Groh (2017), Tim Demeter (2019- we skipped’18), and Estephanie Mendoza (2021- we had a virtual event in 2020, that year we had a Sasquatch/UFO designed by Margot Lange).
I happen to love the word, story, and imagery of CHUPACABRAS. In fact, I have a long delayed fiction that has a trio of Chupacabras in the storyline. I would love to work on that some day (but it won’t be some day soon).
The first Chupacabras reports can be traced back, specifically, to Puerto Rico (let’s call it Chupacabras puertoricanus). In his book Tracking the Chupacabra: The Vampire Beast in Fact, Fiction, and Folklore (University of New Mexico Press, 2011), researcher Benjamin Radford lays out a compelling case that the original Chupacabra case stems from a Puerto Rican woman who had just seen the movie Species (1995) and shortly after claimed to have seen a similar creature on her property. Like the creature in Species (which was designed by the great artist H.R. Giger), this monster was described is looking somewhat like a hunched over Grey alien with rows of long spines on it’s back; later depictions also included bat-like wings and fangs.
The news grew bat wings on the island and soon people were talking about US experiments gone wrong and the creature was blamed for reports of livestock allegedly found drained of their blood. Chupacabras translates to “goat-sucker.” As my TWW podcast co-host Heidi likes to say: “Chupacabras: they really get your goat.”
The second style of Chup comes from the Mexico-US border area (Chupacabras texmexus) some years later. These reports, it was quickly determined, were not of supernatural creatures, but rather of poor dogs, foxes, and coyotes suffering from bad cases of mange. Mange causes animals to lose their fur. Imagine driving under the moonlight on a rural road and your headlights happen upon this poor devil lurking on the side of the road:
The southern Chupacabra has taken on a life as it’s own and sometimes you’ll see a crossbreed of the two– a canine-like animal with spines down the back and extra-terrestrial black eyes. Ah, the life of a Chupacabra breeder.
So now, as we begin planning stages of Milwaukee Paranormal Conference 2022, I asked artist Jill Zgorzelski to design this year’s logo. She asked if I was looking for the Puerto Rican or Southern version, and although our previous artists have gone with the Puerto Rican, I told her either is acceptable, because we need to let all Chupacabras into our hearts and minds. She’s going for the Southern fried version and I know she’ll do something great.
SEE ALSO: My book Monster Hunters is still available here: Monster Hunters | Chicago Review Press
Keep an eye out for the new art and Milwaukee Paranormal Conference updates on our website, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram pages.
Check out Jill Zgorzelski’s art page here: Jill C. Zgorzelski | Facebook
Follow me on: Substack//Facebook Group//Twitter//Instagram
My latest books are:
Brady Street Pharmacy: Stories and Sketches (2021, Vegetarian Alcoholic Press)
American Madness: The Story of the Phantom Patriot and How Conspiracy Theories Hijacked American Consciousness (2020, Feral House)
teakrulos.com 