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Maine hosts one of the ‘weirdest, wackiest’ fall festivals in the U.S., according to Thrillist
Visitors can check it out on Oct. 12.
Are you looking for a fall activity that doesn’t include apples and pumpkins?
Thrillist recently released a list of the 15 weirdest, wackiest fall festivals in the U.S. and included the North American Wife Carrying Championship at Sunday River in Newry, Maine.
Here is what Thrillist wrote about the competition:
Apparently the sport of wife carrying began in Finland, sparked by a legend where a robber would steal both food and women from the towns he pillaged. Naturally, we have adopted this and turned it into an extreme sport. The 23rd Annual North American Wife Carrying Championship tasks competitors with carrying their significant others through a dry and muddy 278-yard obstacle course, either fireman-style (over the shoulder), piggyback, or the most popular: the Estonian Carry (flipped upside-down with legs around the runner’s shoulders). If you’re in it to win, it helps to have a partner with heft. The winning team scores the wife’s weight in beer and five times her weight in cash.
This year’s competition will take place Oct. 12.
Previous winners told Boston.com what it was like to compete in the race, saying the woman has to basically turn herself into a human backpack.
Other wacky fall festivals that made the Thrillist list include the FireAnt Festival in Marshall, Texas; the Woolly Worm Festival in Banner Elk, N.C.; and the Tarantula Awareness Festival in Coarsegold, Calif.
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Check out the list of the 15 weirdest, wackiest fall festivals in the U.S.
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