The Alabama Chicken and Egg Festival is all it’s cracked up to be — an interactive agricultural experience offering old-fashioned fun, egg-citing eating contests, food vendors featuring chicken prepared in a variety of ways, and live entertainment by over a dozen popular regional bands and local favorites. The eighth annual event is scheduled for April 13-15, 2012, at the Lions Club Fairgrounds in Moulton.

Agricultural displays and the Southern Folk Life Art exhibit take center stage again in 2012 introducing festival-goers to a diversity of folk skills dating back to the pioneer days. The "Down on the Farm" area features a Bluegrass music stage, antique tractors, demonstrations by quilters, farriers, basket makers and much more.

Introduced during the 2011 event, Rooster Call returns for the eighth annual event. The juried art exhibition attracted entries from across the Southeast with each portraying chickens and roosters in different and creative ways. A jury panel will select one Best of Show artist, a second place and a third place. The Best of Show recipient wins a $500 cash prize, a listing in the Rooster Hall of Fame and the opportunity for the work to be featured in future promotions.

Each year, children and adults take part in the many egg-citing contests during the Alabama Chicken and Egg Festival in hopes of receiving one of the great prizes or simply a good laugh. For those guests with an appetite, the eating contests will satisfy any craving for hard-boiled eggs and chicken wings. During the 2011 festival, the champion of the hard-boiled egg eating contest ate 25 eggs while the winner of the chicken wing eating contest chewed away 40 wings in five minutes.

Where contestants literally walk away with egg on their face, Egg Roulette is an opportunity for local, well-known personalities to raise money for a local charity. Two contestants are provided with six eggs of which five are hard-boiled and one is raw.?At the sound of a whistle, each contestant immediately selects an egg and smashes it to his forehead.?The loser of the game is the first person to have egg on his face. The winner advances in the single bracket tournament for a chance at winning $500 for his designated charity.

Think you can cluck the loudest? Then enter WDRM’s Chicken Clucking Contest. Listeners of WDRM call in to the radio station beginning in April to qualify for the contest. Those qualifying will strut their stuff on the Chicken Stage where the festival’s audience chooses the best clucker.

Music fills the air from local and nationally-renowned artists representing a variety of genres from bluegrass to Southern rock ‘n’ roll. Past headliners include Confederate Railroad, Wet Willie, Paul Thorn, Atlanta Rhythm Section, Dr. Hook and Pure Prairie League.

No chicken festival would be complete without live chickens. Chickens ranging from bantams to full size will be on display giving guests an up-close look at the many different breeds and varieties.

For more information, visit www.alabamachickenandeggfestival.com or follow us on Facebook, Twitter.com/alabamacef, and www.MySpace.com/alabamachickenandegg.