Mothman Festival This Weekend
Posted by: Craig Woolheater on September 16th, 2013
Lyle Blackburn and myself will be in attendance at the 12th Annual Mothman Festival this weekend in Point Pleasant, WV. Lyle will be speaking on The Beast of Boggy Creek.
Stop by and say hi if you are attending.
POINT PLEASANT — A celebration of Point Pleasant’s most famous “citizen” is ready fly into downtown when the 12th Annual Mothman Festival arrives Sept. 21-22.
This year’s festival will feature a new attraction – the Mothman Ball at 10 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 21 at the State Theater. DJ KOS has been booked to perform live dance/house music with a backdrop of scary movie flicks. Costumes are encouraged.
The following is a tentative itinerary for one of Point Pleasant’s largest tourist attractions. Saturday, Sept. 21 will feature the following live music at Point Pleasant Riverfront Park – noon, Moonshine Crossing, 2 p.m., Bunkhammer, 4 p.m., Two River Junction, 6 p.m., 40lb Snapper, 8 p.m., Blue Z Band. In addition, the Mothman Band will perform at 8 p.m., Sept. 21 at the West Virginia State Farm Museum.
Also on Saturday, the following guest speakers have been booked: 10 a.m., Patrecia Gray speaking on Mothman Experiences; 11 a.m., Chad Lambert speaking on Mothman Comic Book; noon, Fred Saluga speaking on UFO’s and Cryptozoology; 1 p.m., Stan Gordon speaking on Strange Pennsylvania; 2 p.m., Rosemary Guiley speaking on Haunted West Virginia. 3 p.m., Susan Sheppard speaking on The Derenberger Tapes. 4 p.m., Lyle Blackburn speaking on Beast of Boggy Creek. 5 p.m., Sharon Shull speaking on Mary Hyre/UFO Sightings. 6 p.m., Robin Bellamy speaking on the History of Mothman. 7 p.m., Jeff Waldridge speaking on Conspiracy Theories; 8 p.m., Bill Bean speaking on Paranormal Experiences.
Sunday, Sept. 22, will feature the following live music at Point Pleasant Riverfront Park: noon, The Dub V’s; 2 p.m., Blitzkrieg; 4 p.m., Jesse Crawford Band.
Also on Sunday, the following guest speakers have been booked: noon, Tom Ury speaking on his eyewitness Mothman account; 1 p.m., Neal Parks speaking on Gargoyles, Angels and Demons; 2 p.m., Dale Morton speaking on Mothman Costume; 3 p.m., Matt Pellowski speaking about Eyes of Mothman.
Other things to do include a Walking Ghost Tour on Friday, Sept. 20 and Saturday, Sept. 21 with tickets $10 per person, $5 per child, children under 12 can go on the tour for free. The tour starts at the Coffee Grinder. Call 304-593-9922 to purchase tickets in advance. In addition, the popular haunted tour of the Lowe Hotel will also be held with information at the hotel.
Aerial TNT tours will be held all day on Saturday, Sept. 21 at the Mason County Airport, call 304-675-7765.
Downtown tram rides will be offered for $2 per person through downtown Point Pleasant.
The Mothman Museum will be open 10 a.m. – 7 p.m., Saturday and 11 a.m. – 5 p.m., Sunday the weekend of the festival. Cost is $3 adults, $1 kids 11 and under.
TNT Bus Tours will take place and include a 75 minute tour of landmarks in the TNT area. Tickets will be at mothmanlives.com booth.
TNT Hayrides are at 7 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 21 at West Virginia Farm Museum with tickets on sale at 10 a.m. that day, adults $5, children under 12 ride for $3.
There will also be a rock climbing wall, inflatable bouncing tents, face painting, karaoke, live bands at the Iron Gate Grille, spot the Men in Black and Mothman, Riverside Cloggers at noon and 3 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 22.
In addition, the Mothman Pageants will be held Sept. 19, (Tiny, Little, Young and Junior Miss) as well as Sept. 20 (Little Mr., Teen, Miss, Ms. and Mrs). For more information on the pageants, go to the official website at missmothmanfestivalpageant.com.
Co-founder of Cryptomundo in 2005.
I have appeared in or contributed to the following TV programs, documentaries and films:
OLN's Mysterious Encounters: "Caddo Critter", Southern Fried Bigfoot, Travel Channel's Weird Travels: "Bigfoot", History Channel's MonsterQuest: "Swamp Stalker", The Wild Man of the Navidad, Destination America's Monsters and Mysteries in America: Texas Terror - Lake Worth Monster, Animal Planet's Finding Bigfoot: Return to Boggy Creek and Beast of the Bayou.
I fail to understand why a festival is being held for an unproven, most likely non-existent entity when the actual truth of the event is that 46 people lost their lives when the Sliver Bridge due to structural fatigue, collapsed in 1967. I remember clearly the news that night reporting the event and there was no talk of Mothman. This entity is a creation of naughty teenagers, people with overactive imaginations and extrapolated upon in his book by John Keel. I have a first edition copy bought in 1975. With the exception of the Silver Bridge event, the book is constructed of Mr. Keel’s whole-cloth reality and supposed stream of events that he experienced while not actually being there in connection with the Mothman, but actually being there to collect information for an article on UFOs he was writing for Playboy. His article was rejected and replaced by one written by Allen J. Hynek. Eight years later, “The Mothman Prophesies” was published. I would wonder what the families of the 46 people who perished in the collapse feel about this festival?
Much like Roswell, which I have created sculptures for, I smell a cash-cow which in future times, the bridge event will be forgotten. Notice none of the activities listed in the festival program mention the Sliver Bridge or loss of life, which is the real terror in the story of this affair.
100% with cryptokellie.
Overactive imaginations by some very unsophisticated witnesses fueled by that opportunist, paranormalist, aka “journalist,” John Keel.
A couple of sandhill cranes, a few turkey vultures and one or two owls.