STORY AND PHOTO BY KAREN BOSSICK

The Trailing of the Sheep Festival has been nominated by USA Today for Best Fall Festival.

And it needs your vote to rise to the top.

The Trailing of the Sheep Festival was selected as one of 20 nominees by a panel of experts, including editors from USA Today for The USA Today 10 Best Readers’ Choice Award contest for Best Fall Festival.

Now, those who know how cute the struttin’ mutton are need to weigh in by voting online at https://www.10best.com/awards/travel/best-fall-festival/.

The contest closes at noon on Monday, Aug. 26, and the winners will be revealed on Friday, Sept. 6. Rules allow the public to vote online for one nominee per category per day.

The Trailing of the Sheep Festival, founded 23 years ago, celebrates a culture that is still very much alive  with exhibitions of sheep shearing and felting, tasty lamb bites, Basque , Peruvian and Scottish dancers and the parading of more than a thousand sheep down Ketchum’s Main Street as they make their way from summer pastures in the mountains to the desert.

This year’s festival will be Oct. 9 through 13.

The festival has received a plethora of awards over the years, including recognition as “One of the Top Ten Fall Festivals in the World” by msn.com.

“We are thrilled that the Trailing of the Sheep Festival was nominated for another prestigious award, and we encourage all of our fans to go online and vote for us,” said Laura Musbach Drake, the Trailing of the Sheep Festival’s Executive Director.

Here’s the full list of the Best Fall Festival nominees:

  *   Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta

  *   Autumn at the Arboretum

  *   Columbus Oktoberfest

  *   Great Cortland Pumpkinfest

  *   Great Jack O'Lantern Blaze

  *   Harvest on the Harbor

  *   Hood River Valley Harvest Fest

  *   National Apple Harvest Festival

  *   NC Pecan Harvest Festival

  *   NH Pumpkin Festival

  *   Oktoberfest Zinzinnati

  *   Scarecrow Festival

  *   Sonoma County Harvest Fair

  *   Suwannee Hulaween

  *   Trailing of the Sheep Festival

  *   Vermont Pumpkin Chuckin' Festival

  *   Warrens Cranberry Festival

  *   Wellfleet Oysterfest

  *   West Side Nut Club Fall Festival

  *   World Championship Punkin Chunkin