Carl and I were so fortunate to have heard about Chickenstock that was held this very weekend. We have been traveling and camping and meeting folks along the way and having such a great time; AND not to be able to attend a music festival, we were excited to say the least. As we finished the last mile down the Top of the World Highway into the valley where Chicken Alaska resides, we could see the tents, the RVs, the music venue, and all the people and our excitement was evident.
We found a place to park and then proceeded to the gate to find out how to become one of the few that get to attend this event. Apparently they had been sold our for a while, but they noted that the front desk might have some tickets. It might have been our charm or maybe just our purely desperate faces, but we scored two tickets and a camping pass. We were told to meet with Simon who would help us find a place.
Simon and his wife met us at the front and after several spots, we decided to take the first one and quickly parked the FJ on some rocks to get it leveled. The tent went up, the bags were organized, Carl set up his tent at the foot of Chicken’s Chicken, and we were off to partake in the music, food and of course beer. We met the trombone player of a band called “The Skidmarks”, as well as many other people who were asking about the FJ, the tent, and where we were from and where we were going. We met some French Canadians traversing the continent from East to West; some Americans that are retired and traveling between Alaska and Arizona; some locals (from Fairbanks) who traveled up for the weekend’s event.
We arrived around 2 pm and watched several bands. We had a few beers and some pulled pork sandwiches and met a lot of cool people. At one point we headed up to the town center of Chicken, AK, which consists of a gas station/mercantile, a liquor store, a bar, and a restaurant, to take a look around. While sitting at the tables and learning about all of the shredded cloth in the parking lot (the Panty Cannon) we met Rick Sward from a band called KingSwardfish who has a great series of touring stories. His band was the closing act for the event.
We headed back to the event and watched several other amazing bands. Then the main event occurred; the Peep Drop. A Cesna plane flies over the crowd and drops a bunch of Marshmallow Peeps in bags over the crowd. Apparently the crowd can put $$ into a pot and if the peep lands in a kiddie pool and their number is in there, they win the $$. With the wind as it was, on the 3rd pass he managed to get most of the peeps into the crowd, but I don’t think any made it into the pool. A set dropped at my feet so I picked it up as a souvenir.
I was a bit tired from the long day so I decided to go back to the tent to nap a bit. I missed one of the bands, but Carl was back at the truck and woke me for KingSwardfish’s event. They are a riot on stage and pretty good musicians and plated until 3AM. Such a blast. And by the way, we caught the SUNSET over Chicken at a little after 3AM.
Chicken Alaska and their Chickenstock festival is a total blast. Hoping I get to do that again.