The Fair Oaks Chicken Festival is a celebration of our rural history and present village atmosphere.  The Village of Fair Oaks, colonized around 1895, was home to orange and citrus groves as well as olive orchards and assorted farm animals—and, without a doubt, chickens were among them.

Today the Fair Oaks chickens enjoy the freedom and hospitality of the village they call home. They, along with their human counterparts, attend the Thursday night summer concerts in the park. They can be found “crowing” their appreciation for a good performance at the Fair Oaks Theatre Festival. They gather in front of the local pub and other village businesses and even “drop in” for a bite with diners on the patio of one of Sacramento County’s better known restaurants. They have been the subject of television and radio stories as well as local newspaper and magazine articles. In short, they are a part of our history and lore—and love ‘em or curse ‘em—they are a very real part of everyday life in the village they call home.

In 2007, we celebrated our chickens and our village with the Second Annual Fair Oaks Chicken Festival and the results were astonishing! How were we to know that our chickens would prove to be so popular?

The Fair Oaks Recreation and Park District estimated that 8,000 people attended this one day event last September!

•   All Festival events were sold out or over subscribed.
•   The gourmet Cooking Demonstrations and Food Pairings were sold out.
•   The Microbrewery Beer Tasting attracted so many people, several of the participating breweries ran out of beer before closing time.
•   The Festival’s children’s venue was swamped with kids (and their parents) trying their hand at gold panning, face painting, potting plants, petting bugs and having their picture taken with their bug of choice at the bug petting zoo to name just a few of the activities available.
•   The Chicken Cook-Off attracted some unique local citizen chefs presenting their barbeque offerings and entertaining the crowd.
•   The Festival’s food vendors were busy from start to finish with some of them selling out prior to the close of the festival.
•   The Festival’s craft vendors were busy from opening to closing taking orders and selling their wares as fast as they could get them on display.
• The community groups that took a booth at the Festival were overwhelmed with the business they attracted and the response they received.
•   The Village merchants had a banner business day.
•   The Festival’s Grange Sponsored Country Breakfast was so successful that many of those looking for breakfast had to seek out local restaurants (they weren’t complaining) to satisfy their appetites.
•   The Festival opened with Mumbo Gumbo and a new band took the stage every two hours throughout the day.  The upbeat music matched the mood of the crowd and provided the perfect atmosphere for listening and dancing.

“WHAT A GREAT PARTY”

“I had a great time! Be sure to do it again! We’ll be back next year!” was heard over and over throughout the day – and many times since then. It came from the Festival goers, the vendors, the bands, the chefs, the microbreweries, the kids and their mom’s and dad’s, and the merchants in the Village.

We offer grateful thanks to those who helped make the Annual Fair Oaks Chicken Festival a success. Please join us as we continue our celebration of the Fair Oaks’ Chickens and the village they call home.

An "Old Time Country Breakfast" will be served from 8:00am to 10:30am and the Street Faire, activities and events will start at 10:00am and run to 8:00pm.

FREE Admission!! Any proceeds enable the Festival to serve the community and to benefit a variety of non-profit educational, charitable, cultural, historical, arts and service organizations.

Mark your calendars!
If you missed the Festival last year, you don’t want to miss it this year!
Check this site often to see what we have in store for 2008!