You can find a different festival almost every weekend this summer in mid-Michigan, but only one of them features a "gizzard " eating contest.
That would be the annual "Gizzard Fest" in Potterville.
It started Friday at noon and runs through 5 p.m., Sunday.
There are rides, softball and basketball tournaments and lawnmower races. But the "gizzards" are the star attraction.
Joe Bristol, Chairman of the festival committee explained why.
"In 1960 my parents purchased Joe's Gizzard City and back then they were known for chicken dinners. But they would make, and they had to cut their own chickens up into pieces and you had all these other parts laying around and one of them's mainly the gizzard and if it's prepared properly it's very delicious. Since 1960 it's become a very big deal. Actually we sell more gizzards than we do actual chicken."
The gizzard-eating contest is at three p-m Saturday. The fastest person to eat two pounds of gizzards wins $100.
