Mountaire Farms, the country’s sixth largest chicken company, is helping bring back the Spring Chicken Festival in Siler City with a $15,000 donation to the Parks and Recreation Department, company officials announced.
The Chicken Festival began in the late 1980s as a celebration of food, music, arts and crafts and was hosted by the Chamber of Commerce. It was discontinued sometime after the year 2000 due to declining resources.
But with Mountaire building a new processing plant in Siler City that will eventually employ up to 1,100 people, town officials thought it was time to bring back the annual event.
“We are happy to help bring back this annual celebration that helps promote chicken and brings people to Chatham County,” said Phillip Plylar, President of Mountaire. “We hope it will grow every year and become a great annual tradition.”
The planning has begun for the one-day festival set to take place throughout downtown Siler City on Saturday, May 4 th , 2019. It will be held from 10 am to 6 pm, and will include food trucks, a classic car show, music, arts and craft vendors, fun and games for kids, and a beer garden with craft and domestic beer for adults.
Hosted by the Siler City Parks and Recreation Department, the festival will also include a Ferris wheel and a 28-foot high rock wall. Live music will begin at 1 pm with the Sandband, who was featured at the 2018 Carolina Beach Music Awards in North Myrtle Beach. From 4 to 6 pm, Siler City’s own Nu-Blu will take the stage to close out the event.
Mountaire will have a booth at the event and will have activities and information about the company’s new plant in town. The vision behind the Siler City Spring Chicken Festival is to promote positive economic and social impact to residents of the City and Chatham County, increase tourism in the historic district of Downtown Siler City, promote diverse Parks and Recreation programming, and of course, enjoy delicious chicken.
