Bigfoot Festival & Conference THIS WEEKEND

The Honobia Bigfoot Festival and Conference is this Friday and Saturday, September 30 and October 1. Deep in Bigfoot country, the 16th festival will be held at the Kiamichi Mountains Christian Mission (Christ 40 acres), at Highway 144 and Indian Highway, Honobia, Ok.

Whether you are seeking family fun or wish to hear of local sightings, the event offers something for you.

“We have had a lot of reports in the Kiamichi area,” said Troy Hudson, who leads expeditions to explore the Bigfoot phenomena, and has logged over 1,000 hours of field investigations. Hudson will open each day of the conference, which is $10 per person per day.

Much of the festival is free. A Bigfoot-like creature often appears. The 2022 Bigfoot t-shirts will be offered by the Honobia Bigfoot Organization (HBO), a non-profit group, which presents the event. With help from the Choctaw Nation, the HBO gives scholarships to high school graduates at Battiest, Buffalo Valley, Clayton, Smithville, and Talihina for college or technical training. A kids’ zone is $5 per day per child.

Food vendors, face painting, and live music are expected. Helicopter rides will be given, weather permitting. Bigfoot mementos, t-shirts and crafts will be sold.

To apply, vendors should email jollysafety@gmail.com.

The Choctaw Nation will give free flu shots Saturday morning to the public.

Jim Mordecai will demonstrate print casting. He and Hudson are investigators for the Native Oklahoma Bigfoot Research Organization (NOBRO) which posts reports of Bigfoot sightings in Oklahoma and elsewhere on NOBROBIGFOOT. ORG.

Another speaker is Pete Buffalohead, member of the Ponca Tribe of Oklahoma.

An avid Bigfoot researcher, he will tell of his encounters with Bigfoot, who he knows by his Ponca name, En-daw-thi-gay, or giant. Shelly CovingtonMontana of Texas is a Level II Certified Wildlife Tracker who gathers evidence on Sasquatch with her wildlife skills and with Citizen Science Wildlife DNA kits.

David Wilbanks of southeast Oklahoma authored “Kiamichi Bigfoot: Investigating the Oklahoma Sasquatch.” He has documented Bigfoot sighting since the mid-1990’s, and in 2001 was featured on The Travel Channel documentary ‘Bigfootville,’ about a rash of sightings reported in Oklahoma. John Vandeventer is the conference moderator.

If you dare to stay after dark, camping fees, campfire story-telling and other festival activities are detailed on the Honobia Bigfoot Organization site at honobiabigfoot. com. Registration for the Bigfoot 5K is detailed on that site. Be warned: some campers report strange howls, pinecones thrown at tents, wood knocks and suspected visits by a mysterious creature to at night. The Honobia Bigfoot Organization warns fans to come prepared for the remote wooded area that Bigfoot loves. There are no ATM’s, the closest gas station is 18 miles away, there is no WIFI, and your cell phone may not work here.