Hairy Man Festival 2026: Brushy Creek’s Weirdest—and Most Loved—Fall Tradition

Only in Brushy Creek can you run a 5K in the morning, hear a spooky local legend in the afternoon, and finish the day watching someone compete for $500 because he is exceptionally hairy.

Yes, the Hairy Man Festival is real.

Yes, Hairy Man Road is real.

And yes, every fall Brushy Creek fully embraces one of the area's strangest traditions with live music, food, costumes, games, local vendors and the grand finale: the Hairiest Man Contest.

The 32nd Annual Hairy Man Festival is Saturday, October 17, 2026, from noon to 5:00 p.m. at Cat Hollow Park, 8320 O'Connor Drive in Round Rock. Admission is free. Brushy Creek MUD suggests bringing two nonperishable food items or donating $2 per person to benefit the Round Rock Serving Center. (Brushy Creek MUD)

And before we get into the festival itself, we need to answer the obvious question.

Who—or What—is the Hairy Man?

The Hairy Man story is local folklore, not documented history.

One of the most common versions of the legend says that sometime in the 1800s, a young boy became separated from a caravan of settlers during a storm near Brushy Creek. According to the story, he survived alone in the woods, eventually becoming a reclusive hermit who frightened travelers passing through the area. The legend ends with him being struck or trampled by a speeding stagecoach and supposedly continuing to haunt the creek corridor afterward. (Kut)

Like any good local legend, the details change depending on who's telling it.

What is very real is the wooded Brushy Creek corridor that helped the story stick. KUT reported that longtime local lore included people driving Hairy Man Road at night, turning off their headlights and listening for the supposed howl of the Hairy Man. (Kut)

So: real creek. Real road. Very real festival.

Hairy ghost-man?

You'll have to decide that part for yourself.

First Up: The Hairy Man 5K

This is where I want to make an important distinction.

The Hairy Man 5K happens the same day as the festival, but it is a separate morning event with a different starting location.

The 2026 Hairy Man 5K begins at 9:00 a.m. at Creekside Park and follows a USA Track & Field-certified course along the Williamson County Regional Trail beside Brushy Creek. It's open to runners and walkers of all skill levels. (Brushy Creek MUD)

Current registration is $20 for an individual or $45 for a family, and the registration fee includes a race T-shirt. Preregistration closes at 9:00 a.m. Friday, October 16, with on-site registration available beginning 30 minutes before the race. (Brushy Creek MUD)

So if you're doing the full Hairy Man experience:

Run—or walk—the 5K in the morning.

Go home.

Shower.

Recover.

Then come back for the weird stuff.

Then the Hairy Man Festival Begins

The main festival opens at noon at Cat Hollow Park.

Brushy Creek MUD's current 2026 event information lists live music, food vendors, arts and crafts booths, carnival games, Halloween-themed crafts, scavenger hunts, face painting, inflatables and petting zoos. Local nonprofits also operate food and game booths as fundraisers. (Brushy Creek MUD)

It's less haunted-house scary and more:

Fall festival + Brushy Creek inside joke + extremely hairy men.

Which is honestly a pretty great combination.

2026 Hairy Man Festival Schedule

That schedule comes from the current live Brushy Creek MUD festival page. An earlier 2026 sponsorship brochure listed a 5:30 p.m. end time, but the current public event page now shows 5:00 p.m., so that's the time I would use when planning your day. (Brushy Creek MUD)

And Then Comes the Main Event: The Hairiest Man Contest

I mean...

This is what we're all really here for.

The Hairiest Man Contest starts at 4:30 p.m. on the main stage, and participants need to report to the stage by 4:25. Contestants can preregister or sign up at the event information booth between noon and 4:15 p.m. (Brushy Creek MUD)

And this is not merely for bragging rights.

The 2026 first-place winner receives $500 plus a goodie basket. (Brushy Creek MUD)

So if you've spent your entire life wondering whether excessive body hair would ever pay off financially...

Brushy Creek has your answer.

Don't Skip the Reading of the Legend

One of my favorite parts of the festival schedule happens right before the Hairiest Man Contest.

At 4:15 p.m., the local Hairy Man legend is read to the crowd. (Brushy Creek MUD)

That's what makes this event feel different from a generic pumpkin-and-food-truck fall festival.

The community actually leans into its own folklore.

And honestly?

More places should do this.

Every suburb has traffic.

Not every suburb has a haunted hermit.

What Does It Cost?

The main Hairy Man Festival is free to attend.

Brushy Creek MUD suggests a donation of two nonperishable food items or $2 per person for the Round Rock Serving Center. (Brushy Creek MUD)

The 5K, however, is separately registered and currently costs $20 per individual or $45 per family. (Brushy Creek MUD)

So don't confuse the two when you're planning the day.

Festival: free.

5K: paid registration.

Where Is Everything?

The main festival takes place at:

Cat Hollow Park
8320 O'Connor Drive
Round Rock, TX 78681 (Brushy Creek MUD)

The morning 5K starts separately at:

Creekside Park
along the Brushy Creek trail system. (Brushy Creek MUD)

Brushy Creek MUD also publishes a current event map and parking map on its official festival page, and I'd absolutely check those again before leaving home because event-day traffic around O'Connor and Cat Hollow can be busier than usual. (Brushy Creek MUD)

Official Hairy Man Festival information

Why Hairy Man Festival Is Such a Brushy Creek Thing

This is one of those events that explains the community better than a real estate listing ever could.

You can talk about Brushy Creek's trails.

The parks.

The mature trees.

The neighborhoods.

The pools.

The schools.

But traditions are what make a place feel like somewhere people actually belong.

And Hairy Man has become one of those traditions.

KUT has covered the legend and festival multiple times, including the long-running Hairiest Man competition and its connection to local Brushy Creek folklore. (Kut)

It's goofy.

It's spooky.

It's local.

And nobody is pretending otherwise.

That's exactly why it works.

Put This One on Your Calendar

Hairy Man 5K:
Saturday, October 17, 2026
9:00 a.m.
Creekside Park
$20 individual / $45 family (Brushy Creek MUD)

32nd Annual Hairy Man Festival:
Saturday, October 17, 2026
12:00–5:00 p.m.
Cat Hollow Park
8320 O'Connor Drive, Round Rock, TX 78681
Free admission (Brushy Creek MUD)

If you live in Brushy Creek and haven't experienced Hairy Man yet, this is one of those local traditions you should probably see at least once.

And if you're particularly hairy?

There are 500 reasons to make 2026 the year you finally participate. (Brushy Creek MUD)

Thinking About Living in Brushy Creek?

At Hoyden Homes, we spend plenty of time talking about the practical side of living here—homes, neighborhoods, trails, schools, commuting and the real estate market.

But understanding a community also means knowing the traditions people actually look forward to.

And it's pretty hard to get more Brushy Creek than:

a creekside 5K, a spooky local legend and a championship for exceptionally hairy men.