Vinton County Wild Turkey Festival sets pageant, youth contest dates
Families have until April 28 at 1 p.m. to enter Wild Turkey Festival contests, with pageants set for May 2 and youth titles decided May 10.
Families hoping to put a child or contestant on the Wild Turkey Festival stage have a hard deadline first: contest forms and payment must be submitted by Tuesday, April 28 at 1 p.m. to the event’s P.O. box in McArthur.
The 2026 Vinton County Wild Turkey Festival will run Thursday, May 7 through Sunday, May 10 on the downtown streets of McArthur, but the royalty contests begin before opening day. The Wild Turkey Festival Pageant is scheduled for Saturday, May 2 at 7 p.m. at Vinton County High School, and the Little Miss Wild Turkey Festival Pageant will begin that same day at 11 a.m., with doors opening at 10:30 a.m.
Admission to the pageant is $5 per person, with children 5 and under admitted free. The pageant also includes a People’s Choice Award, where monetary donations count as votes, giving friends, family members and sponsors a direct way to back a favorite contestant.
The youngest festival titles will be decided later in the week. The Little Mister Gobbler and Little Miss Gobblerette contests are set for 3 p.m. Sunday, May 10, the final day of the festival. Those contests are open to Vinton County Local Schools-enrolled children in preschool through third grade, and one boy and one girl will be crowned winners. The vote count is simple and competitive: penny votes apply, and $1 equals 100 votes.
The schedule puts the festival’s public-facing contests squarely in front of the county before downtown McArthur fills with the rest of the celebration. The Vinton County Convention and Visitors Bureau promotes the Wild Turkey Festival as a downtown event with food, music, carnival rides and games, a car show, a quilt show and queen and baby contests. The Grand Parade is always held at 6 p.m. Saturday and is followed by the crowning of the Wild Turkey Festival Queen.
The festival’s long run also helps explain why the contests draw steady attention. The Wild Turkey Festival has been held at the intersection of U.S. Route 50 and State Route 93 every year except 2020 since 1985, a local tradition tied to the reintroduction of the Eastern Wild Turkey in Ohio. Live-captured wild birds from West Virginia were brought to Vinton County in the 1950s, and the birds later spread across the state. That history still shapes the festival’s place in county life as families prepare for pageant night, youth contests and four days of downtown activity.
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