For years the annual Gainesville Spring Chicken Festival was held downtown Gainesville on the square, but Longwood Park served as this year's location for the growing event.
The new location gave visitors a view of Lake Lanier and offered shade to people and four-legged festival-goers, a luxury not found at the previous location downtown.
Several food vendors filled the park, where they served their special recipes of chicken in every form you could imagine - fried, grilled, smoked, barbeque, buffalo, teriyaki, you name it.
Festival taste testers were issued a punch card where with each sample of chicken, the food vendor signed off one of 12 squares. Once cards were filled with 12 signatures, they could be dropped in a voting box located at each vendor’s booth as a vote for best chicken.
The City of Gainesville has hosted the event in honor of the poultry industry, which has brought millions of dollars to Gainesville. Event sponsors help to fund the "Gainesville Spring Chicken Scholarship" for students pursuing a career in the poultry industry, and the "You're the Reason Scholarship" for City of Gainesville employees' college-bound children.
2019 Festival winners:
- People's Choice Award: Gainesville Fire Dept.
- Showmanship Award: Peckerwood Country Club
- Best Overall Awards:
- 1st place: Ninja Pig BBQ
- 2nd place: Walgreens
- 3rd place: Peckerwood Country Club
- 4th place: Antioch Baptist Church
- 5th place: Smokin' Butts
Click the picture above to view our photo gallery from this year's festival.
