A Cluck'n Good Time
If you ask people around the world the first thing to come to mind when they think of Kentucky, chances are most will respond with some variation of fried chicken, and they aren’t wrong.
Despite those within the state often boasting that the Commonwealth’s biggest export is bourbon, horse racing or basketball, the state is home to—and perhaps best known for—its fast food chicken legacy, much of which resides in the southeast Kentucky hamlet of Laurel County. It was there that Harland Sanders began selling fried chicken from a gas station during the Great Depression, which quickly gained popularity.
In 1935, the governor named Sanders an honorary colonel in Kentucky, and by 1940 he’d crafted his “secret recipe” of frying chicken in a pressure fryer, a method much more efficient that more commonplace pan frying, and in 1952 he franchised his restaurant for the first time. With that, Kentucky Fried Chicken was born.
From its first location in South Salt Lake, Utah, KFC expanded on a scale that few others can match in the seven decades since, with nearly 30,000 locations worldwide. However, it’s not the only major fast food chain with roots in the region.
Working under Sanders’ wing in the early years of KFC was his nephew—and the eventual co-founder of Lee’s Famous Recipe Chicken—Lee Cummings. Teaming with the Colonel in 1952, he helped to open 800 locations in the restaurant’s early years of franchising before pivoting in the wake of KFC’s 1962 sale to John Y. Brown. It was then he began his own “Famous Recipe” that he’d go on to helm his own business with two years later in Lima, Ohio.
In 1990, the Sanders Cafe & Museum was opened on the site of the Colonel’s original restaurant and motel in North Corbin to commemorate KFC’s roots in the town. That same fall the first World Chicken Festival—a celebration of both KFC and Lee’s ties to the area—hatched in nearby London.
According to Festival Coordinator Kim Collier, the festival was initially proposed as a way to solve two issues at once—finding a way to sufficiently honor their fast food chicken story and creating a signature event around which to build community.
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A Cluck'n Good Time
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A Cluck'n Good Time
“We had all this local history and no signature festival to speak of,” Collier said. “With Sanders’ 100th birthday taking place in 1990, it made perfect sense to build an event around it to fill the void. We began planning the year prior for the inaugural gathering to coincide with that milestone, and it has continued to grow ever since.”
In the 34 years since, the festival has expanded with several egg-citing activities, from Chicken “Trickin” Trivia to a Kentucky Fried Colonel motorcycle ride, pickle ball and corn hole tournaments, beard and whiskers contest, Rooster Tail mullet contest, children’s “Chick-a-Lympics,” a chicken cook-off, “Run For The Roost” 5K, Colonel Sanders look-alike contest, hot-wing eating contest, egg drop contest, Cluckin’ Struttin’ and Crowin’ contest, and more.
But its biggest attraction, literally, is the world’s largest stainless steel skillet. Donated to the festival and first used in 1992, the behemoth skillet has cooked over 120,000 chicken meals since its inauguration. It measures in at 700 pounds, with a 10-foot, six-inch diameter. Once operational, it can cook up to 600 chicken breasts at once, requiring 300 gallons of cooking oil, 375 pounds of flour, 75 pounds of salt, 30 pounds of pepper and paprika, and the festival’s special blend of herbs and spices.
“It’s so big that we actually have to bring it in on a trailer in pieces before assembling it on site and connecting it to the 60 gallons of natural gas it runs on, which is more than the typical family uses in a year,” Collier explained. “We had to construct a new one in 1999, but still have the original on display for attendees to see up close and take pictures.”
A Cluck'n Good Time
Drawing as many as 200,000 visitors annually, the World Chicken Festival has become not only the City of London’s (population 7,600) biggest event, but one of Kentucky’s grandest affairs. Every September, visitors flood Main and Broad streets and the connector road between them. The streets are lined with close to 180 food and craft vendors run entirely by local non-profits. The free festival has managed to keep its community and family-friendly focus despite its steady growth. One of the staples of that has been live music on the Stage of Stars and Sanders Stage (that’ll feature Hannah Dasher and Nicholas Jamerson & The Morning Jays, among others, in 2024) along with its Sunday church service followed by the “Gospel Eggstravaganza”—gospel music programming from 1-5 p.m.
“We do our best to incorporate local and regional bands into the lineup so they can have the opportunity to shine before our headliners take to the stage,” Collier said. “Then on Sundays our Stage of Stars gets rebranded to the ‘Gospel Eggstravaganza,’ which kicks off with a church service from First Christian Church and United Methodist Church that typically draws one of the biggest crowds of the entire weekend.”
The 34th edition of the World Chicken Festival will take place from Sept. 26-29.
A Cluck'n Good Time
Drawing as many as 200,000 visitors annually, the World Chicken Festival has become not only the City of London’s (population 7,600) biggest event, but one of Kentucky’s grandest affairs.
Go see it
Founded in 1990 to commemorate the fast food chicken lineage residing in southeastern Kentucky’s Laurel County, the World Chicken Festival celebrates KFC and Lee’s Famous Recipe Chicken patriarch’s Harland Sanders and Lee Cummings with everything from look a-like contests to chicken strut and cluck competitions, live music, meals from the world’s largest stainless steel skillet, and more. The event will celebrate 34 years in 2024 on the streets of downtown London, Kentucky, from Sept. 26-29. chickenfestival.com.