The festival was first held in 1948 in Georgetown, Delaware as a backdrop for the Chicken of Tomorrow Contest, a national competition for the purpose of developing a better meat-type chicken. In 1949, even though there was no Chicken of Tomorrow Contest, the second Delmarva Chicken Festival was staged in Salisbury, Maryland as a way of creating an increased awareness of the importance of chicken to the Delmarva area.

 

Through the years, the Delmarva Chicken Festival has continued as a family-focused celebration of Delmarva’s number one bird. Usually held on a weekend in June, the festival moves each year to a different community on the Delmarva Peninsula where it draws an estimated 20-25,000 visitors. The event is sponsored annually by Delmarva Poultry Industry, Inc. (DPI), the trade group representing the poultry segment of Delmarva agriculture, and is hosted by an organization within the community where the festival is being held.

 

The 61^st Delmarva Chicken Festival will be held on June 18 and 19, 2010 in Dover, Delaware on the campus of Delaware State University, host for the 2010 event. This will mark the festival’s ninth visit to the Dover community.