Newspaper Page Text
Del Hampton
clucks his way to
a championship-..
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STRUT, CLUCK, CACKLE
r Sp orting homemade tail
feathers, Del Hampton struts around the open
air stage in Wayne, Neb. (pop. 5,583), clucking
jj like a nervous hen. In fact, Hampton's poultry
i performance is so impeccable that a panel of
* judges last year named him the National Cluck-
Off champion for the ninth consecutive year.
The clucking contest is one of the highlights of the
Wayne Chicken Show, a celebration of the town’s early
days when nearly all local farmers raised chickens.
“I always loved making up funny voices for my
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daughter when she was little," says Hampton, 42, of Fort Smith,
Ark. "I was watching The Tonight Show and saw former Cluck-Off
champion Joel Vavra talking with Jay Leno. I thought that was
pretty cool, so the following year I drove up to Wayne and gave
it a try.”
The rules are simple. Contestants have to be heard across the
barnyard, act and sound like a chicken, and cluck for at least 15
seconds.
The Chicken Show was started in 1981 by the Wayne Regional
Arts Council as a nod to the town's farming past and to allow
artisans to have creative tun at the expense of the domesticated
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A Cluck-Off contestant
gets into character.
animals," says ClaraOsten, whose family farm provides live chickens
for the festival's rooster-crowing and chicken-flying contests, and
live chicken-scratching area. “To watch the faces of the little kids
light up when they touch a chicken is really priceless.”
The festival, scheduled July 11 to 13, annually hosts about 15,000
visitors from across the state and nation. "I enjoy looking over the
crowd and seeing people clapping and laughing,” says Wes Blecke,
29, program manager for the Wayne Chamber of Commerce.
Highlights of the festival include the world’s largest chicken
dance, featuring 500 dancers strutting in downtown Wayne,
and a fowl-themed parade, with chicken-related floats and live
entertainment such as the “Chickendale Dancers," comprising
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Wayne State College students ride a float as the Chickendale Dancers.
Page 10
fowl. Each year, the event has a new
poultry theme, such as "Lewis and
Cluck" or "Our Coop Supports the
Troops," that adorns T-shirts and
other "cluck-tibles,” as organizers
call them.
“Chickens are funny,” says Irene
Fleccher, 50, office manager for
Wayne Area Economic Development
Inc. “They are easy to make fun of
and have son with.”
Up until the 19705, every Wayne
County farm had chickens, but times
have changed.
“Today, even adults haven’t had
contact with chickens or any farm
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