Does N.C. need an official fried chicken festival?

 North Carolina needs a new state festival to honor “fried chicken,” according to Representative Elmer Floyd, D-Fayetteville.

He introduced House Bill 256 on March 5, asking the General Assembly to adopt the yet-to-be-created Fayetteville Fried Chicken Festival as the “Official Fried Chicken Festival of the State of North Carolina.”

Poppycock. The Fayetteville Fried Chicken Festival is imaginary. Is it a case of “Which came first, the chicken or the egg or the chicken festival?” Dagnabbit, y’all.

The start date for the Fayetteville Fried Chicken Festival in the City of Fayetteville would be the third weekend of May in 2021, and it would be held “annually thereafter,” Rep. Floyd noted.

He introduced a similar bill two years ago, and Paul Woolverton, a staff writer at the Fayetteville Observer, cracked open the story before the festival plan had a chance to hatch on its own.

Woolverton reported that the idea originated with Bill McMillan of the Fayetteville Area Hospitality Association.

Rep. Floyd’s bill references “fast facts” from the North Carolina Poultry Federation (NCPF), based in Raleigh, to assert that the poultry industry is a big deal in North Carolina. No question.

The poultry industry’s economic impact in the state is reported to be more than $36.6 billion a year, accounting for approximately 127,000 jobs for North Carolinians.

Poultry products combine to form North Carolina’s leading agricultural commodity. Hogs are in second place. Nationally, North Carolina ranks third in total poultry production. (It’s always a toss-up, but typically, Georgia ranks first with Arkansas second, reports Bob Ford, executive director of the NCPF.)

The federation says the average American consumes 90 pounds of chicken, 17 pounds of turkey and 240 eggs per year. Americans eat chicken more than any other meat, and as Rep. Floyd points out “one of the best-known poultry dishes is fried chicken, which is a common staple in many Southern households.”

Perhaps it is right and good to applaud poultry, especially on National Poultry Day – Tuesday, March 19. (It is right and good to “Eat Mor Chikin,” so say the Chick-fil-A cows.)

However, there already are three up-and-running real annual festivals in North Carolina that pay homage to poultry. Is Rep. Floyd’s bill fowl play?

One. The original festival of this ilk is the North Carolina Poultry Jubilee in Rose Hill, a small town in Duplin County. Its roots date back to 1963 when Dennis Ramsey of Ramsey Feed Co. commissioned the construction of the “World’s Largest Frying Pan”…that really works…as a tribute to the importance of the poultry industry.

The Rose Hill cast iron frying pan measures 15 feet in diameter and weighs 2 tons. It holds 200 gallons of cooking oil and can fry 365 chickens at a time. The giant, propane-fueled frying pan has a 6-foot handle sticking out to one side, for authenticity’s sake…not that anyone could ever lift the dad-gum thing.

When it’s time to cook, Rose Hill’s volunteer firefighters are up early in the morning to man their stations, constantly stirring with their pitchforks.

The two-day jubilee occurs this year on Nov. 1 and 2. The jubilee committee operates under the wing of the Rose Hill Chamber of Commerce.

Chamber leader Mandy James describes opening day: “By mid-morning the whole town smells like fried chicken, and by 11 a.m. that first batch of golden, crunchy, tender, moist, and oh so delicious Jubilee Fried Chicken is just right and ready to sink your teeth into.”

Duplin County Tourism promotes pairing fried chicken with wines made from the region’s famous muscadine grape vineyards. Come to Duplin to “Uncork. Unwind. Unplug.”

Two. The North Carolina Turkey Festival was created in the community of Raeford in Hoke County in the mid-1980s. The event is now known as the NC Fall Festival, but the focal point continues to pay tribute to the value of turkey production in the area. The state turkey cooking contest is the centerpiece of the annual celebration that occurs in September.

Three. In Wayne County, the community of Goldsboro’s “Beak Week” has been transfigured into the North Carolina Poultry Festival. This year’s event is Saturday, Sept. 7, in downtown Goldsboro. The festival showcases local artisans, vendors and “all the chicken and turkey you can eat.” Patrons flock to the Food Cluck Rodeo.

The organizing committee is a diverse private-public partnership, aligned under the umbrella of “Visit Goldsboro. Be More. Do More. Seymour.” The festival itself is fully aligned with marketing game plan to leverage the community’s assets of “4 Ps: pigs, pickles, planes and poultry.”

Regarding the future of H.B. 256, there were a lot of “peeps and tweets” among the legislators. Perhaps the most memorable comment came from Rep. Grier Martin, D-Raleigh, who said: “Not sure this bill is going anywhere. Best not count chickens before they hatch.”