Central Pennsylvania's own apple-stealing cryptid is getting the party treatment again. Albatwitch Day returns Saturday, October 10, to Riverfront Park in Wrightsville, marking what organizers are calling the event's “unlucky 13th edition” of a festival built entirely around a legendary creature said to lurk in the woods of Lancaster and York counties.
The Albatwitch itself has been described in local lore as a small, hairy, fast-moving hominid, according to Weird NJ. As ABC27 reports, the creature is tied to sightings across the region dating back decades, and the festival's name itself comes from the critter's signature habit. Per PennLive, the Albatwitch is said to steal apples and throw the cores at anyone who gets too close, and its name is Pennsylvania Dutch for “apple snitch.”
A Festival Split in Two
This year's gathering in Wrightsville is only half the story. The Columbia Historic Preservation Society has held an annual Albatwitch festival since 2014, per ABC27's reporting, before the event relocated to Wrightsville in 2025, according to the same source. The move means central Pennsylvania now has two separate Albatwitch celebrations on the fall calendar — Columbia's happened in late September, while Wrightsville's version lands this coming Saturday, a split PennLive describes as doubling the ways to celebrate the county's beloved apple-throwing cryptid.
The divide has had consequences. Rick Fisher told LancasterOnline that attendance and the number of vendors at the September Columbia event were down compared to 2024, citing weather and the cancellation of other anniversary festivities that weekend. Reported turnout for the 2024 festival itself varies depending on the source — LancasterOnline cited Fisher's estimate of around 8,000 attendees, while Atlas Obscura reported the event drew more than 5,000 people from across the United States that year.
Music, Mascots and Cryptid Royalty
Back in Wrightsville, Riverfront Park will host live sets from three Pennsylvania acts — Dillweed, Swamp Whompers, and Logan & Aliccia — according to ABC27's rundown of the day's lineup. Art and merchandise will be for sale alongside food and drinks, the station reports, giving the gathering the feel of a full community fair built around a local legend.
Special guests lean into the cryptid theme hard. Sarah Cooper of the American Snallygaster Museum, a museum devoted to another American cryptid, is slated to appear, per the same ABC27 report. The festival will also get a dose of hometown sports spirit when Lancaster Stormers mascot Cylo shows up alongside an Albatwitch mascot of its own, organizers say.
Trolleys Into the Dark
The night caps off with Albatwitch Haunted Trolley Tours winding through Wrightsville, with 48-person tours scheduled for 7 p.m. and 9 p.m., according to ABC27. Published start and end times for the daytime festival itself diverge across outlets: ABC27 lists the event running from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., while PennLive, Columbia Spy and Weird NJ report an 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. window.
For those planning an overnight stay, the Albatwitch Day website lists Rivers Edge, located at 1829 Long Level Road in Wrightsville, as a nearby lodging option. Whether the Albatwitch itself puts in an appearance remains, as always, a matter of local legend rather than confirmed fact.
