美国国家公共电台 NPR The Lore Of Bigfoot Lives On At North Carolina Bigfoot Festival

LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST:

People from across the country gathered this weekend in a small North Carolina manufacturing town to celebrate Bigfoot. The first-ever Bigfoot Festival in Marion, N.C., brought everyone out from Sasquatch skeptics to yeti explorers quick to share tales of sightings and howls. From member station WFDD in Winston-Salem, David Ford 3 reports.

DAVID FORD, BYLINE 4: Marion's Chamber 5 of Commerce Director Steve Bush is ambivalent 6 when it comes to Bigfoot.

STEVE BUSH: I'm going to say until I physically 7 see him - I want to believe. But until I physically see him, I'm going to say no at this point.

FORD: But, personal skepticism aside, Bush says he was quick to support the Bigfoot Festival. This is a city in transition, with old furniture factories and textile buildings downtown retrofitted into hip 8 retail 9 shops and microbreweries.

At first glance, it's pretty much what you'd expect from a cute Bigfoot festival - yeti T-shirt booths, Sasquatch yard signs. But then there's the Bigfoot juice stand run by Allie Webb. She claims the earthy, woodsy-smelling concoction 10 is both an insect repellent and a Bigfoot attractant.

ALLIE WEBB: I believe that the Bigfoot juice does work. We say that it's good for up to a mile and a half away. Just because you don't see Bigfoot, doesn't that mean that he didn't see you and decide to turn around and run.

FORD: Webb's also quick to point out that she has a witness. Festival organizer John Bruner has led the Bigfoot 911 explorer team for years here. He says they used the juice about a year ago and finally hit pay dirt.

JOHN BRUNER: We were doing an expedition. And I had one across a forest service road about 30 yards from where I was at. And I got a really good look at it.

FORD: And the feeling...

BRUNER: I've been hunting Bigfoot for 40 years and doing research. And it was just totally exhilarating for me. And it was kind of like - you know, I finally got to see one. After all I've went through and all the time I've spent in the woods, I finally got to see one.

FORD: It's a sentiment shared by many other researchers here at the festival, like Lee Woods (ph).

LEE WOODS: The female we saw probably right between 11:30 and 11:45 at night. And we saw her through what's night vision. And that was the first one I'd ever seen.

FORD: Woods stands behind a booth alongside other experts answering festivalgoer questions, displaying Bigfoot photos, casts and even field recordings 12.

(SOUNDBITE OF INDISCERNIBLE SOUND)

FORD: That may be the sound of a yeti crying out, or it may not. Teams here use modified digital recorders with long-lasting batteries. They're carefully hidden - recording 11 forest sounds for up to 15 days at a time.

For many here at the festival, the Bigfoot-calling competition will be the high point for seasoned hobbyists, like Woods and for Sasquatch newbies like Irys Frankon (ph). She and her family drove from Clarkesville, Ga.

IRYS FRANKON: Well, because we're still trying to find out if he's real or not. And there's possible sightings everywhere, to be totally honest. And we just still believe in them. And we could eventually get one.

FORD: Frankon hopes to call Bigfoot out of the forest and onto Main Street.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: What is your name, young lady?

FRANKON: Irys.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Irys, have you been working on a call?

FRANKON: Yeah.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: You're ready?

FRANKON: Yeah.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: All right. Here we go.

FRANKON: (Screaming Bigfoot call).

(APPLAUSE)

FORD: Eventually, Bigfoot-calling champions were announced, and the daylong festival wrapped up. There were no Bigfoot sightings, but stories were shared. Thousands and thousands showed up for the occasion. And more than one Sasquatch skeptic 1 was converted. The lore 2 lives on.

For NPR News, I'm David Ford in Marion, N.C.

(SOUNDBITE OF MIJA'S "NEVER B ALONE")