You can spend a day at the National Fried Chicken Festival assessing the merits of competing wings or two-piece fried chicken combos.
But you can also get fried chicken etouffee fries (from food truck Diva Dawg); a fried chicken cocktail, that is chicken coated in sauces inspired by the old-fashioned cocktail, served in a cup, no less (from the Bayou Road bar Whiskey & Sticks); and even the sweet, savory, creamy, kind of crazy “ice cream chicken leg” (from pop-up BOF Bars).
Eye-catching food is commonplace at food festivals. But the way it manifests here also points to how the National Fried Chicken Festival is different.
It's the result of an organization determined to present a diverse lineup of vendors and give smaller players a way up.
Cleveland Spears, founder of the festival, calls it foundational to the event’s mission.
You can see, and taste, it all in action when the National Fried Chicken Fest returns this Saturday and Sunday on the New Orleans lakefront. This year it has 50 food vendors, up from 35.
Many are from New Orleans, and there’s also a growing number from around the country, reflecting the “national” part of the festival’s title.
Significantly, the vendors list is also peppered with small operators, including mom and pop restaurants, caterers and food trucks, the type you don’t always see at big festivals like this.
The learning curve can be steep for new vendors, so the festival puts more resources into preparation and support.
Vendors are competing for awards, and the top honors dished out by judges are indeed coveted for bragging rights. But creating opportunities for all the vendors to do well at the festival is another goal, giving a platform for businesses across the community to reach a bigger piece of that community.
And people do turn out for Fried Chicken Fest. Credit that to the underlying love for fried chicken or the countless ways people have to prepare it, from traditional to wild. Behind it all, there are small food vendors out there ready to spread their wings.
