#3 The 30th Annual Chandler Chamber Ostrich Festival Chandler, Arizona

This Festival was on March 9-11 and we went on Sunday the 11th. I read about this festival about 15 years ago when the Anaheim Angels manager, Mike Scioscia gave some of the players a spring training assignment.  He gave pitcher Jarrod Washburn the assignment of going to the Ostrich Festival. The next day he came in the locker room with an ostrich which sent pitcher Ramon Ortiz into his locker yelling “el Pollo grande”. After I read about it I didn't really think much more about it until recently when I was looking for 30 things to do this year. The more I read about the Ostrich Festival the more I wanted to go and since it was the 30th annual I just had to go. 

On Sunday morning we wanted to get up early to get there, but we were tired and didn't get up so early, but since the event lasted all day it was okay. We got there just around lunch time and when we arrived the parking was nice how they just had the handicapped section in with the VIP section and was not very crowded at the time we were there. We bought tickets which were $15 for adults and my parents got the senior rate of $8. Once we entered we walked down the main road through the event where all the vendors were selling just about everything, ostrich this and ostrich that but I was in search of an ostrich burger.   

 

Once we found the food area there were so many choices including barbecue on a stick, fried items and just about everything you can imagine but eventually we found the ostrich burger stand.  I ordered mine with cheese and it also came with grilled onions and pickles. They had condiments out on the table in front of the stand but I thought I should try it without. We found a nice grassy area next to the stand to eat. The burger was kind of like red meat like a regular beef burger, but there was a rather odd taste to it and I wasn't so sure if I liked it.  My dad ended up eating the other half. 

After this we went to watch the pig races. This I thought was not too exciting and a bit hard to see sometimes when oblivious people lean over in front of you to take pictures and block your view. But the pigs were racing around a little fenced in area and the winner gets an Oreo cookie and the losers get the crumbs that were laying underneath. 

Once this was over we had time to get to the main attraction the ostrich races! We got there about an hour until the races, but so did a lot of other people. 

 

When we got to the arena area the ostriches were out and about. One was just walking around and looked rather odd with real skinny legs and neck and the midsection area bouncing around a bit and this just made me laugh. Another one was sitting down and resting until there was a kid that was pestering the other one. He came over by the fence to defend his friend and the kid was lucky to not lose a finger.  

 

 After a while they got all the ostriches rounded up and ready to race they had three racing at a time with rider on top of each. When they took off they looked even more ridiculous than before especially with the riders on top. The crowd’s main reaction was just laughing about it and I can't tell you which ones won any of the races, if it was the red white or blue rider. They also had kids running with the emus and chickens and even a couple camel races.  All these things were kind of interesting but just not the same as the ostrich races. Once the races were done most of the crowd immediately got up and left. Right after that they let the ostriches out again.  The whole group of them ran right up in front of us and we could easily see them since everyone had left.

After all this I was kind of tired, so we decided to head out but I had one last thing to do which was to get an ostrich cup. They were selling these right next to the ostrich burgers. When we were done with that we left.  This was quite the adventure and I had a lot of fun watching all the ostriches.  There was so much going on and I could’ve easily spent all day at the Ostrich Festival.