Harkers Island comes to life the first full weekend in December each year as the Core Sound Decoy Guild holds its annual Core Sound Decoy Festival. People have been 
making the pilgrimage to the event since 1988.
The 26th Annual Core Sound Decoy Festival will be held on Saturday, December 7th and Sunday, December 8th at the Harkers Island Elementary School.
The festival has many attractions that include antique decoy exhibits, retriever demonstrations, competitions including duck calling, loon calling, head whittling, and a live and silent auction. There’s always delicious food offered by Harkers Island Elementary School staff and volunteers, and plenty of shopping opportunities from the many vendors who flock to the festival each year.
As always, this show features several events uniqe to the region, as well as some IWCA contests.
- Core Sound hunting style decoys
- Root head decoys
- Duplin County Ducks Unlimited decoy (2013 is a Redhead Drake)
- IWCA working decoys
- IWCA style decoys
- Decorative decoys
This year's contest is also the location for the 2013 IWCA Style Shorebird Decoy Championship.
The Core Sound Decoy Carvers Guild has a very nice website you can visit for additional information. You can also download the show brochure and entry form here: