Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Events Test Your Wings: Hot Chicken Festival Calling for Entries
Posted by Carrington Fox on Wed, Jun 3, 2009 at 6:40 AM
With the July 4 festivities advancing like a line of British musketeers, the Music City Hot Chicken Festival is calling for fearless contestants to enter the third annual amateur chicken cook-off.
To apply for one of six bird-cooking bids, send an e-mail to contest@hotchickenfestival.com with the following information:
- Contestant/Team Name
- Primary Contact
- Address
- Phone Number
- Two paragraphs explaining why you should win the chance to compete
Deadline for entries is Friday, June 12. Selected contestants will check-in with their spices and equipment at East Park no later than 11:00 a.m. on July 4; cooking begins at high noon. The event goes until 3 p.m., with free samples from 400˚, Bolton's Spicy Chicken and Fish and Prince's Hot Chicken Shack, as well as entertainment and family-friendly activities.
Now, I don't have any inside information on the selection process, but it seems to me that a good name is key. It's going to be hard to beat past contender Poultry in Motion, but maybe the Bites team can help.
Drive-By Cluckers? Bird on the Street? The Fowl Players? Surely you can do better...
Comments (17)
Showing 1-17 of 17
"Once bitten, twice burned?"
"Box fan in the bathroom?"
"Chick-bid-a?"
I think you tell what I remember from my occasional Prince's visits.
like
dislike
I love hot chicken, but I'll be damned if I'm going to stand in an hour long line in 90 degree heat for a piece of chicken.
Please reschedule this for October.
Second Tobin's sensible request. In fact, seems this sensible request has been made before, many times. And yet it somehow gets ignored or vetoed every year, and by people nobody voted for. I frankly don't care any more what committee meets to discuss this date or what their justification is for leaving it, it's just plain nonsense to think hot chicken should somehow remain linked to July 4th festivities.
Eating and celebrating Nashville's Hot Chicken has nothing to do with insufferable hot weather, parking congestion for later fireworks, and most of all, toddler-type family-oriented activities in general. Hot Chicken is not for kids, and its after effects are not for porta potties. Schedule it in the fall, in the late afternoon, maybe with some other adult/tween activity, so people of appropriate ages can enjoy the chicken for what it is. It deserves more than to be tacked on to something already budgeted and planned, where surviving the elements and sitting still for the fireworks becomes the overriding physical reality for most.
not that I have an opinion...
I agree, later in the year would be a great idea.
Are they going to have something to drink this year, or do I need to bring my own?
Geez, S L don't get so heated. You might need to run by Yazoo and get yourself a cold one. Darn.
I think the Festival is pretty good considering it is run entirely by volunteers who are just trying to get the word out about Hot Chicken and help some worthy East Nashville non-profits in the meantime.
So that you know, the volunteer committee is looking into the merits of a new date for future festivals and we are having healthy dicussions about it. This year we decided to keep it on the 4th.
Your comments about Festivals not working on the July 4 - hello Taste of Chicago. Besides, we are certainly not competing with nor trying to piggy back on the Riverfront concert and fireworks. Wouldn't dream of it. Last we checked July 4 was a day of celebration for anyone that wanted to through a party.
Your voice has been heard, however.
Dave: Yazoo and soft drinks are readily available.
I don't love burning up, but I do think having it on the 4th keeps the crowds to a manageable size - it's fairly obvious that the hot chicken joints can't really speed up the process and if it got moved to October, the crowds would double and the lines would be nightmarishly long. So I do think the July date keeps it from turning into too big of a festival.
The Moon Pie Festival is coming up in Bell Buckle; I think this is an ideal model to follow...it's my favorite food festival of the year.
Why is SL so angry? First he states it's too hot, then complains about traffic, then brings up porta potties and finally "hot chicken's not for kids" Dude, pick an argument and stick with it. It's an outdoor festival and weather in July is much more predictable than October. Over 5000 ppl enjoyed it last year. Just a bitter soul that can't have his hot chicken in late October, with no kids around, and then drive home quickly to relax in the privacy of his own bathroom...
Add my voice (once again) to the chorus of MOVE THIS THING TO ANOTHER DATE (or at least to a big airconditioned room).
Both times I have gone, the weather was very sunny and around 90 degrees, with high humidity and no breeze. Holding the festival at high noon, serving hot chicken and beer, on July 4... yuck. I won't be back.
I know that Mayor Purcell liked the idea of building a bunch of event around July 4, and this one fit right in. Is it possible (please please) to replace the Hot Chicken festival with some other fare that doesn't make me lose my lunch in a deluge of chicken, grease, and beer foam?
What about a festival of contraptions? Those kids with the tricked out tall bikes, people with crazily modified cars, maybe a RC car demotion derby, and whatever else Nashville's creative inventors want to show. Instead of Yazoo (which I love) frozen daiquiris of odd flavors, maybe get a snowball vendor up there, maybe taco trucks. Fun and weird: perfect for the east side.
Then the Hot Chicken Festival can be moved to its rightly place on an early October evening, with Yazoo and Prince's up on the Shelby Street Bridge or somewhere pretty. Get some old time soul DJs to play classic R&B. First week in October has highs in the 70s with the temp dipping to the sixties by early evening, and October is the dryest month in Tennesse. It would be absolutely perfect.
Can anyone answer the following questions for me, or at least shed some light on the greater points?
1) Approximately what are the chances of being one of the first 500 people that get free samples? What time would my party need to arrive?
2) What would be the prognosis on going directly to one of the vendor locations to purchase product on the 4th, eschewing the East Nashville festivities entirely? Will any of them be closed due to 1) their normal business schedule, 2) their presence at the festival/lack of chicken? Doing this (doing directly to the joint to eat) seems like a great idea on the one hand, and a terrible idea on the other. Festival aside, is July 4 a notoriously busy spicy chicken purchasing day (for taking to picnics, etc.?)
I have a friend coming into town to visit; I want her to try our local delicacy, as does she. But I don't want to waste our precious time/money/opportunity to have a good meal somewhere else.
Thanks for your consideration of these pressing matters! ;)
I have a friend visiting this weekend who wants to experience the phenomenon that is Nashville Hot Chicken.
What's our best strategy?
1) Go to the Festival
2) Go directly to one of the "shacks" to get it
3) Save it for next time
Here are my questions/thoughts:
A) How early would we need to get to the Festival to be one of the lucky 500 who get free samples?
B) Is going to directly to a "shack" to get it a really GOOD idea because all of the fans will be at the Festival, or a really BAD idea due to: chicken shortage/the "shack" is normally closed on Saturdays/the "shack" is closed or relocated due to the Festival/the 4th of July as traditional fried chicken eating holiday?
C) I don't want too much time on this and/or waste a perfectly good dining opportunity. If we could get to the festival at 10, get our free chicken and be out by 12-1 I'd be really good with that. If I'm going to pay for it, I'd just as soon avoid the masses and get it directly from a "shack". Anything that involves much more effort than this is probably going to make me want to tell her that hot chicken isn't all it's cracked up to be and use that meal at one of the many restaurants I'm already sad that I'm not going to have time to take her to.
Any guidance appreciated on this pressing matter. ;)
Thanks!
Sorry for the double-posting...I SWEAR the first one wasn't showing up. If there's a moderator/administrator around who would like to delete one of them, be my guest. =\
Sensible questions all, Adam. I'll try to answer:
1. I'd say your best strategy depends on when your friend gets here. If she's here Friday, go to Prince's--but call first to make sure it's open. (I know for a fact it's closed Saturday.)
2. No clue how early to show up to be assured of some free bird. A hour should be plenty, and you might wind up standing alone in an empty field.
3. The shacks won't be open July 4, so on that day the festival remains your best bet. There'll be some fine vendors--try the Fleur de Lis snowballs if it's above 90 degrees--so you probably won't go away hungry.
Besides, if you tell her hot chicken isn't all it's cracked up to be, you'll be lying.
Hey just remember Bolton's will be there to
take the slack for your needs and for those
who don't like spicy foods or chicken we WILL SERVE SPICY AND NON-SPICY ITEMS ALONG WITH CATFISH guess what, you can have spicy Catfish.
Now for your pocket we will accept VISA AND MASTERCARD
Sorry we can't please everyone, but come on out and have a good time!
Dollye- Bolton's Spicy Chicken and Fish
