Is Oklahoma's Bigfoot festival canceled? What we know about the event's fallout and future

For years, believers and skeptics alike have gathered every fall in southeastern Oklahoma to celebrate their love for Bigfoot and hear from speakers and researchers on the elusive creature.

But some changes are afoot, according to the Honobia Bigfoot Organization and its president, Jolly Winsor.

Winsor posted on Facebook that the Honobia Bigfoot Festival and Conference has been canceled by the campground that hosts it each year free of charge, Kiamichi Mountains Christian Mission at Christ's 40 Acres.

Meanwhile, the mission's Director Artie Carnes is advertising the 2024 "Bigfoot at the 40 Festival & Conference of Honobia" will take place at Christ's 40 Acres the first weekend of October.

Here's what we know about the festival's fallout and its future.

Is the Honobia Bigfoot Festival canceled?

From Winsor's perspective, the annual event as it's been known will no longer exist.

After disagreements led to an ultimatum between the Bigfoot Organization and the Mission, Winsor said she and some of her board members decided to give up their event. Winsor said they made this decision rather than allow Carnes and his staff to manage the event, using the same name and vendor list, they'd worked years to build.

"It's a sad end to a really, really special thing we had," Winsor told The Oklahoman.

Carnes said he disagreed with the idea that he "canceled" the event. Carnes said he and his wife heard complaints from attendees over things like waiting too long for food, having too few vendor options and few new offerings from year to year.

Winsor said these complaints were never mentioned to her, and her team tried suggestions from Carnes over the years that "just didn't work."

Honobia campground offered to take over Honobia Bigfoot Festival and Conference

Carnes said he previously offered to have his staff handle the planning and execution of the event, but after what he said was a lackluster festival in 2022, he said he decided to take action.

Carnes said he sent two letters with his offer to either allow the mission to take over the event and allow the Honobia Bigfoot Organization to still operate their outpost selling merchandise to raise money for scholarships, or for the organization to find another venue.

"We were getting attacks on the reputation of the mission unfairly because we didn't plan the event," Carnes said. "We're not the ones that didn't have enough food. We're not the ones who shut everything down at five o'clock. ... And so these complaints became more than we were willing to accept against the mission."

Carnes said he didn't hear anything from Winsor or the organization until recent social media posts claimed he canceled the event.

Winsor said she only received one letter from Carnes, and they spoke right before this year's event, "and that's when he told me we only had the two options. I've not tried to talk to him since. What would have been the point?"

What to expect from the new Honobia Bigfoot Festival 2024

Annual visitors will notice little difference in the festival under new management, Carnes said. But, he does plan on making some changes.

Vendor booth prices, which Winsor said have been $40 per booth, will be half that for the first year. Also, the campground is developing 30 additional acres for parking and camping.

All profits made from the festival by the campground will go to summer camp scholarships, and other projects handled by the campground.

Finally, Carnes said the event will be expanded through Sunday evening and vendors will be allowed to remain open later than previously allowed.

Carnes said not only will there be an annual Bigfoot festival and conference the first weekend in October, the same weekend Winsor's organization has traditionally held their event, but he is planning corresponding Bigfoot events throughout the year at the campground.

Coming up in April, Carnes plans to host a Bigfoot Spring Music Festival the weekend of the total solar eclipse. He also hopes to have a July Fourth event.

More: Oklahoma is in the path of the 2024 solar eclipse. Where is the best place to see it?

What's next for the Honobia Bigfoot Organization?

While many loyal vendors and supporters of the organization have left comments on social media suggesting finding a new venue, and some even offering up their acreages, Winsor said she has little hope that a suitable place could be found.

"I've had some wonderful people offering fields right here in Honobia," Winsor said. "But in reality, the cost of putting it on would be more than what we could even break even with I'm pretty sure. When we have it with Christ's 40 Acres, they've already got all that (infrastructure) in place, and they've got the buildings. ... So in reality I don't see how (finding another venue) is feasible, I really don't."

Before the festival was held at the campground, Winsor said it was held at the local community center. Her mom, who died in January, was one of the festival's founders.

"I did have a person offer up their property that's close to the community center for parking, if we decided to move it back there," Winsor said. "But after everything, I don't know how many of my people will have a heart to keep doing it. You can only take so many blows before people just say, 'OK, that's enough.'"

Without having the festival to raise funds each year for scholarships, Winsor said the organization will likely dissolve.

She is going to meet with her board members after the holidays to discuss their options.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma's Honobia Bigfoot Festival in question: What to know