LONDON, Ky. ( FOX 56 ) — The World Chicken Festival puts a big spotlight on London, and the community is excited to celebrate rain or shine.
Through the next four days, 150 to 200,000 people are expecting to flock to London for the World Chicken Festival. Ride operators, vendors, and organizers are hard at work making sure it goes off with a bang. Travis Shortt is with the London-Laurel Tourist Commission.
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“One of the reasons it’s so important for this festival to continue even in the face of weather like this is because of the number of nonprofits that it actually benefits. The World Chicken Festival is a fundraising event that helps over 50 local nonprofits, so it’s very important that we keep this going on,” Shortt said.
While there’s excitement in the air, there’s also rain. Shortt said organizers have a plan to make sure nothing stops the fun.
“Part of that is if the rain starts, individuals seek shelter in their cars and buildings. Then, once the coast is clear and that announcement has been made by our emergency team, the festival will resume,” Shortt said.
Speaking of the emergency team, that’s where a dedicated team of first responders comes in, like Officer Hobie Daugherty.
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“We have protocols in place from everything from lightning to severe weather. All the vendors have been made aware that everything must be tied down and properly weighted that way in case we have strong winds, or something to that effect that we do have plans in place just to keep everybody safe,” Daugherty said.
But if the worst that comes is some rain, Gilbert Acciardo with the Laurel County Sheriff’s office said it won’t be enough to rain on their parade.
“I’ve been to chicken festivals up here before, and rain doesn’t slow anybody down. They have umbrellas, they have raincoats, and they even put garbage bags on, but they’ll still be here,” Acciardo said.
With the manhunt for Joseph Couch now over, law enforcement and the community are just ready to get back in the swing of things, rain or shine.
Latest central Kentucky weather forecast “Because of what’s happened in the past several weeks here in Laurel County, Laurel County needs this. Even law enforcement needs it. It’ll be an escape from all that bad stuff that was going on,” Acciardo said.
“I got phone calls, as soon as it happened from all over the country Wanting to know if the festival was still going to happen. There was never one time that our board or the emergency response team have thought about canceling the festival,” Shortt added.
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