Salisbury Events

Salisbury’s calendar has one event of genuine international standing and a regional one nearby that is better known.

Ward World Championship Wildfowl Carving Competition — late April

Held in Salisbury every year since 1971, this is the premier event in a craft that this peninsula effectively created. Carvers come from across the United States and from a dozen or more other countries to compete in categories running from traditional working decoys, judged partly on whether they would actually float and ride correctly, through to decorative life-size and miniature sculpture of a delicacy that is hard to credit as wood and paint. Several thousand entries are displayed together, there is a large auction and dealer floor, and the judging is public. For anyone with an interest in craft, sculpture or birds it is a remarkable thing to stumble on in a small Maryland town, and it is the one week of the year when Salisbury is the centre of something worldwide.

Chincoteague pony swim — late July

An hour south, the wild ponies of Assateague are swum across the channel to Chincoteague at slack tide and auctioned, a tradition dating from the 1920s that draws very large crowds.

Salisbury Folk Festival — autumn

A free street festival of traditional music and craft, left behind after the town hosted the National Folk Festival.

Autumn Wine Festival and the county fair — October and August

Maryland wineries gather at Pemberton park in October, and the Wicomico County fair in August keeps the ordinary agricultural calendar of the Shore.

Farmers’ market and downtown events — spring to autumn

A Saturday market on the riverwalk and regular evening events downtown.