West Virginia Pawpaw Festival

Come to the 8th annual WV Pawpaw Festival at WVU Core Arboretum to taste, buy, and learn about pawpaws!

The 2025 WV Pawpaw Festival at WVU Core Arboretum will be Saturday, September 20, from 12:00-5:00 pm. This annual event celebrating a native fall fruit of the forest is family-friendly, free, and open to the public; no registration is needed. The festival will be in the Lawn Area at the Arboretum, and free parking is available in the adjacent WVU Coliseum parking lot. We will have Peterson Pawpaws select varieties of pawpaw fruit available to sample and purchase, samples of pawpaw dishes prepared by a chef, a talk by a pawpaw expert, the North American Pawpaw Growers Association booth, pawpaw trees and other native plants for sale, live music, food trucks, and more. This is the 8th annual WV Pawpaw Festival at WVU Core Arboretum. Don’t miss this special event and bring your friends!

Pawpaw (Asimina triloba) is the largest fruit native to West Virginia. Pawpaws have a delicious tropical flavor that some describe as a combination of banana, mango, and pineapple and a smooth, creamy texture. Pawpaws ripen in autumn, and we host several pawpaw events at the Arboretum each year to coincide with pawpaw season. Even though pawpaws are relatively common, many people have never tasted a pawpaw, and we hope to change that!