My dad raised me on Dr. Demento. To this day, I randomly start singing songs like “does your chewing gum lose its flavor”… The song is part of my Instagram username for crying out loud. One of my favorite childhood memories is vising the giant Paul Bunyan and Babe, the Blue Ox. Weird is part of my identity so it’s no surprise that I seek it out. Much to Chris’ chagrin!
It should therefore not surprise you dear reader that when I scrolled Instagram last year and stumbled upon a parade where people dressed up as chickens and/or carried them along the parade route, I immediately added it to my calendar for the next event. No joke, this thing was on my calendar for a full year and I was not disappointed.
It isn’t well advertised. It seems to be more of an if you know, you know kinda thing. If you do Google searches for “Edison Chicken Parade” or even “Edison Bird Festival”, you will only get one or two hits for current information. Nearly everything is from prior years. This does make one wonder if making the 1.5-hour drive will be worth it. Can you imagine? Driving that far and the town is just doing its normal everyday thing?! We took the gamble anyway and once we arrived we immediately spied people wearing chicken hats so we knew pretty quickly that we were in luck and the parade was going to happen!
The parade is held in Edison, WA. A town that is large enough to have its own Wikipedia site but said entry does not mention this parade either. It’s a travesty I tell you! Absolute travesty.
Edison is a TINY town. I thought my parents lived in small town USA but this is smaller. We drove around looking for parking and I swear it’s about 3 blocks by 3 blocks. I just had to fact-check myself and I’m not far off. Here’s the link to Google Maps which confirms my estimate.
I have absolutely no idea why they have a bird festival every year. I assume they have more chickens than other birds because of the popularity of people raising their own chickens but this is total ass+u+me on my part.
Regardless of the reasons, the parade is short and adorable. I will absolutely be going again next year but I must find a hat before then. One of the super cool crochet chicken hats to be specific. Yes, I was very jealous but I’m going to be one of the cool kids next year.
So much fun! I want to come next year!!!