Eden, N.Y. (WBEN) - One of Western New York's favorite summer traditions got underway Thursday in the Town of Eden, as the Eden Corn Festival hopes you'll leave shouting its theme, "Shuck Yeah!"
While the weather may have been unbearable for many Western New Yorkers, Jeff Winter says that's just right for the corn.
"In the beginning it was cold and wet, and then it got very hot. But corn likes hot, humid weather, so the crop has come in, and it's very, very good," said Winter in an interview with WBEN.
He estimates some 60,000 ears will be available over the run of the festival.
But there's more to the Eden Corn Festival than munching salted and buttered corn on the cob. The events began with a community pet show.
"A lot of people think it's a dog and cat show, but, we're open to anything. We've had horses, we've had pigs and parrots and a whole variety of stuff," Winter said.
Friday's highlights include a cross country race.
"It's the race for the corn. it's a two and a half mile race, and it's through kind of the backwoods of Eden and around some cornfields and, and that's fun, well attended and, and people do like to watch the ending of it," Winter added.
There's also a baseball tournament taking place through Saturday.
One of Saturday's fun events is the corn shucking contest.
"We have three different age groups at 1:30 p.m. At 3:30 p.m., we've got our media personality shucking contest. I think we've got four local weather people and some news anchors and and some radio people. That's going to be a fun event," Winter said.
He notes Sabres play-by-play announcer Dan Dunleavy, a local Eden resident, will be doing the play by play of the event.
The festival runs through Sunday.