North Carolina State Fair celebrates traditional tobacco stringing

Summarised from 2 outlets · Updated 21 Oct, 07:02 · Archive

North Carolina State Fair holds annual tobacco stringing contest, honouring a farming practice now largely replaced by mechanised harvesting.

The North Carolina State Fair held its annual tobacco stringing contest, a tradition honouring a farming practice now largely replaced by modern mechanisation. Contestants gathered at the fairgrounds in Raleigh on 16 October 2026 to demonstrate the skill of stringing—or 'looping', as it is called in the eastern part of the state—which involved hanging green tobacco leaves on long wooden sticks before the harvest could be cured.

Traditionally, tobacco was harvested by hand and hung in log barns, where it was cured to golden-brown over wood fires that required constant tending. The terminology for the stringing process depended on geography: in central North Carolina it was called stringing, whilst in the eastern part of the state the same practice was known as looping.

The contest represented a significant generational span. Twelve-year-old Sophie Sunday, a seventh grader who took time off school to compete, was the youngest participant. At the other end of the scale, 97-year-old Ruth Coats, who worked her family's tobacco farm near the Virginia border, was the oldest contestant. Today, North Carolina's flue-cured tobacco is harvested mostly by machine and stored in natural gas-heated metal bulk barns, a far cry from the labour-intensive methods of previous generations.

How it is being reported

• Whether `stringing' or `looping,' tobacco is the tie that binds many North Carolina farm familiesIt's called “stringing” or “looping,” depending on what part of North Carolina you're from.Clickorlando · 21 Oct, 05:01
• Whether `stringing' or `looping,' tobacco is the tie that binds many North Carolina farm familiesIt's called “stringing” or “looping,” depending on what part of North Carolina you're from.News4Jax · 21 Oct, 05:01

In this story: North Carolina · Raleigh · Sophie Sunday · Ruth Coats · Pat Short · North Carolina State Fair · Virginia

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