The debate of whether Bigfoot is walking amongst us has spanned decades. Countless movies, television shows and books examine the topic.

However, in the small town of Honobia, Oklahoma Bigfoot is big news. For the 10th year in a row it will hold its annual Bigfoot Festival and Conference.

“Every year we hold a festival and conference in Honobia, Oklahoma that celebrates everything Bigfoot,” according to the Honobia Bigfoot Club website. “It is completely filled with events and local talent. Some of the events at the conference include an art show, 5k run, live entertainment, food booths, Bigfoot story telling, and games for children. All the money raised by the festival goes towards giving scholarships to students in this area.”

The Honobia Bigfoot Festival and Conference is set for October 2-4 at the Kiamichi Mountains Christian Mission outside the Oklahoma town.

According to Jolly Winsor, who runs the Honobia Bigfoot Club, the festival began as a way to infuse money into the community. But it has since grown into an event where “true believers” can congregate discuss the creature.

“The festival was started in 2005 by Ruth Sands, Lavelle Rose, and Katie Cogburn along with Karen Pierce and Ronny Hammer,” Winsor said. “They wanted to come up with an idea to bring people and revenue to the valley. The first couple of years it was strictly a craft festival with Bigfoot story telling and was held at the Honobia Community Center. The third year Farlan Huff approached the ladies about having a Bigfoot conference to go along with it.”

According to The Bigfoot Field Research Organization, there have been 90 instances of bigfoot sightings in Oklahoma. Of those, 23 are said to have come in La Flore County, where Honobia sits. That includes a 2011 incident in which a hunter claims to have shot a bigfoot, but the creature escaped.

“The Honobia area has long been known for it’s Bigfoot activity with numerous sightings and encounters,” Winsor said. “This area has had several researchers that have come to look and observe the Bigfoot. We have had TV programs come and do shows here and have another one coming to our conference this year. We also have a group that conducts Bigfoot expeditions through out the year here. “This, coupled with the desire to generate revenue for the valley was the reason the festival and subsequent conference was born.”

After a couple of down years, organizers has seen the festival grow in attendance over the years. According to Winsor, more than 2,000 people attended last year’s event. They are expecting twice that many this weekend.

“This year we have even more vendors and much more interest,” Winsor said. “This has lead to the amount of campers this year to almost triple in number from last year. Given the added vendors and increased interest we are projecting up to 4000 attendees this year.”

Honobia’s Bigfoot festival will be visited this year by cast members and the producer of the television show, “Killing Bigfoot.” Jim Lansdale and Mike Humphreys, featured Bigfoot hunters, and Peter von Puttkamer, producer-director of “Killing Bigfoot,” are scheduled to be at the conference.

“Killing Bigfoot” ran as a one-hour special on the Destination America channel. More episodes are being produced for a series, Huff said.

Von Puttkamer has been an international award-winning producer. With wife Sheera, he produced documentaries for the Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, History Channel and the BBC.

Lansdale hunted Bigfoot for 20 years and is a co-founder of the “Gulf Coast Bigfoot Research Organization” or GCBRO. “Killing Bigfoot” follows the well-armed GCBRO who hope to kill and bring back a Bigfoot.

Entry to the festival is free but there will be a charge for the conference and the children’s area.

The conference again presents world-class Bigfoot scholars. Dr. Samuel Webb Sentell, Louisiana neuropsychologist and ethologist, hunted large humanoids in “the Big Piney,” in Arkansas, Louisiana and east Texas. He gathered human-like scat which a lab said was from an unidentified species, and found possible Bigfoot hair used in DNA analysis.

R. Scott Nelson, who trained in the U.S. Navy as a crypto-linguist, is a featured speaker. he determined tapes show that Bigfoot creatures have a language of their own.

“One of the most important things to know about our rebirth so to speak is that when we restarted a man named Tom Hefner was the one that got it going again and under his guidance the Honobia Bigfoot Organization took on the task to use our festival and other fundraisers to help raise scholarship funds for three of the local high schools; Clayton, Talehina and Smithville,” Winsor said. “Tom was able to raise over $8000 in scholarship funds that were awarded to qualifying high school seniors from all three schools to advance their college careers. A portion of all of the proceeds from the festival and conference goes to support these continued scholarship funds.”

The McAlester (Okla.) News-Capital contributed to this story.