World's Biggest Fish Fry, Paris

Held the last full week of April every year for the past 53 years, the World's Biggest Fish Fry has grown into an excellent opportunity for Henry Countians to really shine and for families to spend some quality time together in an atmosphere conducive to wholesome fun! The local restaurants and businesses are all showing their best faces when the Jaycees organize this great shindig every year! Hotels and motels offer clean and friendly accomodations and the Paris Landing State Park area of Kentucky Lake is only minutes away! The weeklong event hosts a very diverse calendar of events including a softball tournament, carnival, rodeo, arts & craft show, a street dance downtown in the gorgeous court square and an exciting Grand Parade that draws bands and floats from all over the nation!! Attendance has grown to over 100,000 visitors in the week of celebrations! One fun event the kids will surely get a kick out of is the Catfish Race! For weeks beforehand, local businesses 'sponsor' a catfish to race. Silly stories appear in the local newspaper touting the prowess of each fish. It culminates in plexiglass sluices set up on the courthouse lawn and real live catfish being raced by the Fish Fry Princess court and other local 'celebrities'! So funny and has been a highlight for my family for a few years now! The crowning glory of this fun week is the Fish Fry Tent. Though no longer hosted in an actual tent as in long years past, over 13,000 pounds of catfish will be fried up with all the fixings for an unbeatable repast that no Southerner can turn down and every Northerner should give a try! It is open all week long at the Henry County Fairgrounds and many businesses and organizations from the county take turns serving up the yummy feast as the week goes along. The all you can eat price for for fish, fixins and drink in 2006 will be only $8.00! I've been attending the Fish Fry all of my life and can't imagine any better way to celebrate Spring with my family and friends!