SALISBURY, Md. - Friday started off quiet, but became busy by afternoon at Perdue Stadium in Salisbury.
Dozens descended on the venue to set up for the Delmarva Chicken Festival, back after a nine year hiatus.
"I think it's a really good opportunity for the community to come together," said Cameron Mason of Fruitland, Md. "I mean, chicken's a really big industry around here and I think that it's just a good opportunity to kind of see what the industry is, and come out and have a good day with your family."
From 1948 until 2014, the Delmarva Chicken Association hosted the festival. They stopped after the main organizer retired and the Association adjusted its focus.
But the festival is back this year to celebrate 100 years since Cecile Steele raised the first broiler chickens in Ocean View, Del., starting a multi-billion dollar industry on the peninsula.
Back in 1923, Steele raised chickens for eggs, and had placed an order for fifty young chickens to maintain her flock. What she got changed the trajectory of Delmarva's economy.
"Cecile Steele received 500 chicks instead of the 50 she was supposed to receive," said Holly Porter, executive director of the Delmarva Chicken Association. "She was an entrepreneur, had a marketplace, and raised the birds for meat to about two and a half pounds. And sold them for what is about equivalent today to twelve dollars a pound. So, the smart woman that she is, she ordered a thousand the next time and that is how we started raising chickens for meat here on Delmarva."
One feature of the festival since 1950, had potential festival goers "clucking".
"I think the cast iron skillet, the giant cast iron skillet sounds like a lot of fun to see," said Holly Thompson of Salisbury. "I cook with cast iron regularly, and I think that that would be cool."
It's called "The World's Largest Frying Pan." It measures 10 feet across and weighs 650 pounds.
In the past, the pan could cook 800 pieces of chicken at once.
Now, the pan is part of the collection at the Marvel Museum in Georgetown, Del., which is lending it to the Delmarva Chicken Association to use as a centerpiece of the event. No chicken will be cooked in the pan, but several smaller, five-foot diameter pans will be used.
A team of men from The Metal Shop in Delmar, Del., volunteered to transport and wrestle the giant skillet into place outside of Perdue Stadium.
So, will the Delmarva Chicken Festival be back as an annual event? That answer is not clear.
"We'll, we'll see," Porter said. "There's been a lot of excitement, a lot of buzz. People are really, really excited to be coming out and to have it back, so we'll see how this year goes."
The Delmarva Chicken Festival will be at Perdue Stadium in Salisbury from 1 to 7 p.m., rain or shine. In addition to plenty of fried chicken, there will be live music, craft and food vendors, and fireworks at 7 p.m.
Admission to the event is free.
