By Thomas Stodghill, IV
The 32nd Annual Chicken Festival is happening this weekend in Downtown Dubach, and it is free to the public. This year would have been the 33rd Chicken Festival, but the festival was cancelled last year because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The festivities begin on Friday, Sept. 24 at noon. Arts, crafts and food booths will be set up all afternoon. Bingo will be held later at 6:30 p.m.. They will also have live music Friday night. Cypress Knee Band will be playing from 7-10 p.m., with Jordan Sheppard leading.
The festival will continue Saturday, Sept. 25. They plan to host an opening ceremony at 9 a.m. with the singing of the national anthem and a prayer. After that, an antique car show will be featured.
A Life Share Blood Bus is going to host a Blood Drive at the event at 10 a.m.
In addition to all of that, there will be several contests throughout the day. This includes a pet show, the strut, cackle, and crow contests; and a drumstick eating contest.
On Saturday, Louisiana Purchase Gardens & Zoo will have “Zoo to You” set up for people to see zoo animals from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
The festival will also have live music and entertainment throughout the day on Saturday, including the “Luna Chicks” Dance Group and musician Zach O’Neal.
The day will end with a raffle drawing for the Chicken Festival Quilt.
Gina Stokes, the event coordinator for the chicken festival, explained that they are not doing everything this year.
“We have been cutting back this year,” Stokes said. “Because of COVID, we are not doing a parade this year and we are not doing a beauty pageant because of that.”
Though this event will not be the same, Stokes is hoping that people can come out and have fun at the festival.
