One of Washington’s premier tourist attractions returns Feb. 5-7, when the East Carolina Wildlife Arts Festival and N.C. Decoy Carving Championships turns 21 years old.

The annual event, began by the East Carolina Wildfowl Guild and now managed by the Washington Tourism Development Authority, draws some of the best wildlife artists, decoy carvers and wildfowl callers in the nation. The three-day event also brings customers to area businesses and visitors to the city during what is the slowest time of the year (when it comes to sales) for most of those businesses.

A one-day pass to the festival costs $7, with a three-day pass costing $12. Children under 12 years old are admitted at no cost. Tickets may be purchased at the Washington Civic Center.

The city’s tourism website — www.littlewashingtonnc.com — has a link to the festival’s website. (Click on the “Arts and Culture” icon, then scroll down that page to the “East Carolina Wildlife Arts Festival” link and click on it.) Another option is to simply visit www.ecwaf.com to access the festival’s website.

“Well, we are bringing everything back to the Civic Center,” said Lynn Wingate, the city’s tourism development director and one of the festival’s chief organizers. Over the years, some of the events were spread throughout the city.

“We have quite a few new artists from all over,” Wingate said, including Cory James McLaughlin from Wells, Texas. “He does beautiful work. He’s one of our new ones.”

McLaughlin said he learned about the festival by participating in the North Carolina Waterfowl Conservation Stamp contest last year. He’s planning to participate in that contest this year.

“I kind of found out about the festival that way. I thought it would be neat to do it this year. … It just looked like a good event to participate in. I’m just kind of getting into events with my artwork,” McLaughlin said.

This year, the hooded Merganser drake is species for the North Carolina carving championship, with the black-bellied whistling duck drake the species for the decorative head carving championship. This year, any marsh duck is the category in the Pamlico gunning decoy pairs carving contest. The carving competitions include International Wildfowl Carvers Association contests.

Carving champions will be announced Sunday afternoon (about 3 p.m.) at the Peterson Building next to the Washington Civic Center.

As a prelude to the festival, the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission and the Washington Tourism Development Authority will sponsor the 2016 North Carolina Wildfowl Conservation Stamp competition at 10 a.m. Jan. 25, 2016, at the Washington Civic Center. This year, artists are asked to submit artwork featuring tundra swan, gadwalls, buffleheads, blue-winged teals or brants in their natural habitats.

Contest entries began arriving earlier this week, Wingate said.

Waterfowl-calling contests — duck, goose and swan — are set for the Turnage Theatre during last day of the festival.

The Turnage Theatre will host a wildlife-related exhibit during the festival, Wingate noted.

A detailed list of festival events, their times and locations will be published in future editions of the Washington Daily News.