About The Festival
The wildly successful Black Bear Festival was founded at the epicenter center of the black bear universe in Plymouth, NC. Nearby Plymouth is the home to the world’s largest black bears, the highest black bear densities on the planet, as well as the best public bear viewing in NC. These coastal giant black bears flourish here due to the abundance of high protein crops, mild winters, wonderful habitat, and perhaps even genetics.
The award-winning Black Bear Festival was created to celebrate these magnificent animals and educate the public about them in fun and interactive ways. The event takes place each year on the first Saturday in June on Plymouth’s historic waterfront on the banks of NC’s Amazon – the Roanoke River.
The Black Bear Festival is an amazing mixture of experiences designed to entertain and educate. The festival is unique because of its location on the river, lending to it is a wonderful blend of a Bear Festival and a River Festival. The organizers are always changing the event each year, adding surprises in their quest to make the event bigger, better, fresh, and new.
New for 2025, we have the Paul Bunyan Lumber Show, featuring the elite Lumberjack team sure to wow you with their log rolling and wood cutting skills.
In the Air, you can enjoy hot air balloon rides, helicopter rides, and of course the elite Army Golden Knights!
On the water, you can enjoy pontoon boat rides on the Roanoke River, Lazy River Tubing, Paddlewheel Cruises, and Hysu Cat boat rides. End the day by watching the always spectacular, Reflections on the Roanoke Fireworks Show!
Of course, there are plenty of bear-themed events like our Wild Bear Tours, Black Bear Theater, a black bear museum called Bear-Ology, a children’s Bear Train Ride, a foot race called “Can You Out Run a Black Bear?”, presentations by the Black Bear Biologist, and photographing black bears with Mark Buckler. New this year, Bill Barber presents a seminar on The Regional History of Logging.
There is no end to the fun at the unbeatable Black Bear Festival.