World’s Biggest Fish Fry: A Feast of Nostalgia and Southern Heritage
PARIS, Tenn. — This isn’t your Frappuccino-swilling, indie-rock–craving festival. No. It’s sand-dusted, sun-kissed, and gloriously deep-fried: the 72nd Annual World’s Biggest Fish Fry, where the people of West Tennessee turn catfish into culinary legend.
From April 19 to 27, highways snaked into Paris like they were pilgrimage routes—except here, the gods are hushpuppies, and the gospel is all-you-can-eat fried catfish. Inside the so-called “Fish Tent” (a lovingly aged building that’d rather pretend to be canvas), lines stretched longer than the county fair, patrons wielding $20 plates of steamy catfish, hushpuppies, fries, beans, and mama’s slaw—vinegar or mayo, your southern baptism of choice.
Events included everything from a hush puppy toss to a grand parade.
If your idea of “rock festival” includes floats, marching bands, royalty, and horses draped in Southern grace, welcome to the Grand Parade. That Friday morning, East Wood Street transformed into a pulse-driven stage of community pride. Floats glided by: handcrafted, flashy, hilarious. Bands pumped brassy anthems. Everywhere, people waved, cheered, and inhaled that unmistakable fried-catfish bouquet.
More Than Fish: Rides, Races, Rodeos & Retro Fun
As if catfish alone weren’t enough temptation, the festival unspooled a full carnival armada: Ferris wheels, cotton candy towers, funnel-cake dreams, and deep-fried Oreos that would make any calorie counter weep (sweetly). There was a demolition derby, where cars collided with the kind of gladiatorial gusto only West Tennesseans dare. The rodeo roared with barrel racing, bull riding, and even mutton busting. Yes—small cowgirls and cowboys clung to sheep. Back downtown, sleek catfish—yes, actual catfish—darted through clear troughs in the Catfish Races, each sponsored, each with their moment of finned fame.
Mornings kicked off with the Hushpuppy Dash 5K—runners pounding pavement with hushpuppies on their minds. And if you needed a breather from the grease, there was the Arts & Crafts Show—local artisans peddling handmade treasures in fairground halls.
Peel back the layers and you’ll find roots that trace back to 1938’s Mule Day—a swapped-mules and boots affair that morphed in 1953 into a fish-fry tradition. When the Paris-Henry County Jaycees took over in 1961, they turned the scale from mule to mega—over 5 tons of catfish, hushpuppies, and southern fixings fried within the Bobby Cox Memorial Fish Tent.
In a universe where festivals chase hashtags, this one stands by its grease-soaked creed. It’s less Coachella, more “Catch-yella”—where catfish takes the stage, and Paris, Tennessee, stands center. By week’s end, bellies are full, laughs echo down fairgrounds, and hearts are full of that sweet hushpuppy high.