Coarsegold Tarantula Awareness Festival

No matter how you look at it, spiders get a pretty bad rap. Hollywood showcases them as “evildoers”  and most folks consider them “pests” (at best).  Well, make this the year that you learn something about them & become an arachnophile not an arachnophobe. It's time for the Tarantula Awareness Festival in Coarsegold!

Before we leap into the Tarantula Awarness Festival like a cute jumping spider (don't worry... our tarantulas don't jump), let's talk about just how important they are to our ecosystem. Did you know that the world’s spiders eat between 400 and 800 MILLION tons of bugs per year? And when you compare that number to humans consuming 400 tons of fish & meat annually, that’s A LOT of bugs! And many of these are bugs that we really would rather have less around anyway, like mosquitoes and flies.  Thanks spiders!

Now that you have a fun factoid, are you & your family ready to encounter the residents of the Coarsegold region? The tarantula that is... as part of the Tarantula Festival (also known as the Tarantula Awareness Festival). This long-running annual event celebrates the fall "coming out party" as these eight-legged critters leave their subterranean homes to look for a mate before and then hunkering down underground for the winter. Their emergence means cooler temps are on the way along with the welcomed first rains of the season.

The goal of this event is to educate people on the importance of these big guys & gals. It's also focused on reducing the myths that have been stamped in our minds & instead showcasing their importance in the ecosystem. And that’s not all either! Expect fun things like a pumpkin pie contest where the winner gets a FREE overnight stay at a local resort. Other exciting activities include a tarantula poem contest, a hairy leg contest (Men AND Women), a children’s tarantula race, and a live tarantula derby.

Mark your calendars! If you’re near Coarsegold the annual festival is held the Saturday before Halloween in October, this is a MUST for ALL.

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