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Forest County Bigfoot Festival wins the 2026 PA Wilds Event of the Year!
On July 30, 2026, the Forest County Bigfoot Festival was named the 2026 PA Wilds Event of the Year Champion. We are beyond proud, grateful, and still a little in disbelief.
July 30, 2026 - The Night
About 200 people from across the 13-county wide PA Wilds region gathered at the DuBois Country Club, in Clearfield County, for the 2026 PA Wilds Dinner & Awards ceremony. This year's theme was "The Power of Partnership", which fits us well, because this festival has never been a one-group effort.
The award was presented by Elisha Pospisil, PA Wilds Center board member and Director of Curriculum and Technology at Forest Area School District. In attendance on behalf of the festival were current Forest County Bigfoot Festival Board of Director members Greg Geyer and Jocelyn Sekera, along with the founders of the festival, Dave and Zenobia Yeany, and Suzanne Leonberg, who helped build this festival from the start.
What the Award Means
The event of the year award goes to an event that, through its quality, authenticity, and its use of the PA Wilds brand, has grown into a regional attraction with a positive economic and social impact on the area.
When this festival began in 2020 as a discussion between Dave and Zenobia over a bottle of Clarion River Red wine from the Winery at Wilcox, it was a small idea that took some convincing to get off the ground, in one of Pennsylvania's smallest, and most distressed, counties. Six years later, standing in a room full of people from across the PA Wilds region and hearing our name called, is hard to put into words how much it means.
Quality, authenticity, and connection is why we do this. The legend of Bigfoot is what brought the first visitors here and why we all gather in Marienville every June. For some, that means a weekend full of fun in the woods. For others, it's a lifelong search, a story they've carried for years, or an encounter they've never been able to explain. Our mission has always been for this festival to be a place where all people feel welcome, can enjoy a weekend of fun, and listen to expert testimonies and share stories of their own about bigfoot.
The festival came from a record number of public nominations for the PA Wilds Championship Event of the Year. All those individuals, whether it was local residents who see the economic benefit, vendors or speakers who had a great festival weekend, families who make it a yearly tradition, or a visitor who fell in love with the festival, whoever they all are, took the time to write in and say the festival mattered. Whoever you are, thank you. That kind of support is what keeps a volunteer-run festival going when the planning gets long and the days get short.
With this, we are also reminded of how many people it takes to keep things going. Every volunteer who hauled supplies, every vendor who makes the trek and setups, every sponsor who said "we believe", every speaker, performer, runner, and every person who joined us at the festival ground or ventured into the woods with a phone and a sense of adventure helped earn this, and we wouldn't be here without you.
And to the believers, thank you. Thank you for taking this as seriously as we do. The festival has room for the curious, the skeptics, and of course, the true believers. We're proud of that and that all of you feel at home here in Forest County.
In the spirit of the "Power of Partnership", we feel no group of people has shown it better than the ones who show up, in all aspects, for the Forest County Bigfoot Festival. We are honored by this award and thank you for letting us be the ones to accept it. We're already planning for 2027, and we hope you'll all be a part of it!
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