The Delmarva Chicken Festival is an annual event sponsored by Delmarva Poultry Industry, Inc started in 1948 with the purpose of publicizing the Delmarva Peninsula with an emphasis on its arguably most important agricultural enterprise, raising chickens. The two-day event hosted in various locales on Delmarva features trade shows, arts and crafts, carnival, entertainment, and food concessions. Chicken is, of course, the featured food, but french fries, corn-on-the-cob, funnel cake, ice cream, kettle corn, and fresh-squeezed lemonade are other local favorites. Nearly three tons of chicken are cooked each year in the world's largest frying pan. The pan made its debut at the second annual festival in 1950. The first and original pan was used and made by the Mumford Sheet Metal Company in Selbyville, Delaware. It was ten feet in diameter and had an eight foot handle, weighed 650 pounds and could hold 800 chicken quarters. The 60th Annual Delmarva Chicken Festival took place June 19 and 20, 2009 in Centreville, Maryland, United States.
Famous quotes containing the words chicken and/or festival:
“Filling her compact & delicious body
with chicken paprika, she glanced at me
twice.”
—John Berryman (1914–1972)
“Don’t you know there are 200 temperance women in this county who control 200 votes. Why does a woman work for temperance? Because she’s tired of liftin’ that besotted mate of hers off the floor every Saturday night and puttin’ him on the sofa so he won’t catch cold. Tonight we’re for temperance. Help yourself to them cloves and chew them, chew them hard. We’re goin’ to that festival tonight smelling like a hot mince pie.”
—Laurence Stallings (1894–1968)