25-05-2025
Aurora holds annual Fossil Festival this weekend
AURORA, N.C. (WNCT) — The Fossil Museum in Aurora kicked off the two-day Fossil Festival. Although Aurora is a small, quiet little town, when this festival comes around, the streets are filled with thousands of people.
'This type of event is a large-scale event, and it brings economy. It brings money into the economy. So the local businesses that are open this weekend are going to have a surge in their revenue, which helps keep them open all year,' said Cynthia Crane, the Executive Director of the Aurora Fossil Museum.
The event includes music, food, dinosaur shows, and a fossil dig for people to search for things like shark teeth.
'We're showing them that we can have a good time here. It's a nice little town. It's very busy today. It's very quiet many other days. But, you know, we have a good, positive outlook on the whole festival and the rest of the year, the other festivals that we have throughout the year also,' said Beverly Horvath, the owner of the Blue Crab Boutique.
They say this is the 32nd year hosting this festival, and it's the fourth year this has been the primary fundraiser for the museum.
'So we're a publicly funded, independent nonprofit. That means we stand alone, and we have to raise that money to be able to stay open and to provide the fossil dig and all the different things that we do. We have paid staff on one hand, and we do a lot of outreach, a lot of programming, summer camps, and different things too. So that helps with our education and even the upkeep of the facility,' Crane said.
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