Fair Oaks Park will once again fill with clucking impersonators, decorated wooden chickens and thousands of visitors when the 21st Annual Fair Oaks Chicken Festival returns Saturday, September 19, running from noon to 6 p.m. with free general admission and free parking. The free-roaming birds that give the suburb its unofficial mascot status will share the spotlight this year with a slate of new contests designed to draw bigger crowds and raise money for local causes.
The festival's newest headline attraction is the inaugural Rooster Disc Golf Putting Contest, presented by the Fair Oaks Chamber of Commerce and set up on the MP Field at Fair Oaks Park. Entry costs $20 per player, with points awarded across four different putting distances and cash and prizes going to the top finishers. As CBS News reported, participants may bring their own putters, though the contest will also provide putters for anyone who needs one.
The festival is also introducing a charity Egg Drop Competition, in which 100 numbered wooden eggs will be dropped from above onto a target across three rounds, with prizes going to the eggs that land closest to center, according to the Fair Oaks Chicken Festival's Facebook page. All ticket proceeds from the contest will benefit Fair Oaks Preschool, giving the new event a fundraising purpose alongside its novelty appeal.
Familiar Favorites Get Bigger Stakes
Longtime festivalgoers can still expect the event's signature comedic centerpiece, the Cluck n' Crow Contest, presented by the Kiwanis Club of Orangevale–Fair Oaks. Adult contestants get up to 60 seconds on the main stage to perform their best rooster impression without props or electronic gear, competing for a $100 gift card, per the event's Eventeny listing. This year's edition adds a dedicated Kids Cluck n' Crow division for participants 12 and under, giving younger residents their own shot at crowing glory.
Competitive types with a taste for beanbags can enter the 5th Annual Fair Oaks Cornhole Tournament, co-organized with Orangevale Cornhole and the California Cornhole Association. Entry runs $80 per two-person team, and the field is capped at 32 teams, which will play round-robin matches to seed both competitive and social brackets, according to the Fair Oaks Chamber of Commerce. Meanwhile, the GREAT Chicken Decorating Contest returns for artists young and old: for $20, entrants get a bare wooden chicken cutout to decorate, and the finished pieces go on public display at the festival for attendee voting, split into separate adult and children's divisions.
A Town Built Around Its Feral Flock
The festival's poultry theme traces back to Fair Oaks' early 1900s farming roots, though the modern free-roaming chicken population is often credited in part to local artist Hugh Gorman, whose pet chickens reportedly escaped near Village Park sometime in the 1970s or 1980s. That history, recounted by Fair Oaks Historical Society representative Ralph Carhart, was detailed by ABC10. The birds have since become beloved local fixtures, wandering streets and yards largely undisturbed.
That affection comes with legal teeth. Abandoning chickens or roosters within Fair Oaks is illegal under Sacramento County code and can carry animal cruelty fines reaching up to $36,000, the outlet's report noted. Local rescuers say backyard breeders frequently dump unwanted roosters in town, mistakenly assuming the birds will simply blend into the existing wild flock.
A Growing Civic Gathering
The Chicken Festival has become one of the region's largest single-day community gatherings, drawing an estimated 10,000 visitors to the suburb each September, according to the American River Messenger. The event is organized primarily by the Fair Oaks Recreation & Park District alongside local service groups including the Chamber of Commerce, Rotary and Kiwanis, blending lighthearted competitions with fundraising-driven attractions.
This year's festival also arrives against the backdrop of major recent investment in Fair Oaks' public spaces. Fair Oaks Village Park completed a $28 million upgrade in October 2025, adding a 400-seat Veterans Memorial Amphitheater, a black box theater and a new community clubhouse after five years of construction funded by voter-approved Measure J, according to Comstock's Magazine. Some longtime residents have expressed nostalgia for the era when festival activities were housed entirely in the historic village square rather than spread across Fair Oaks Park, though the festival itself continues to expand its footprint with new contests each year.
