[category]
[title]
If your ideal fall weekend involves pancakes, pajama-clad runners, racing dachshunds and one of the world’s most famous competitive eaters consuming an alarming quantity of breakfast food, Williamsburg, Virginia, has you covered. The second annual Williamsburg Pancake Festival returns September 25 through 27, taking over Colonial Williamsburg, Jamestown and Merchants Square for three gloriously carb-heavy days.
This year’s biggest draw is the World Pancake Eating Championship, where competitive-eating legend Joey Chestnut will join a field of professional eaters on Saturday, September 26. Last year’s champion, Geoff Esper, polished off 35 pancakes, so Chestnut has his work cut out for him.
“I've eaten just about everything you can put on a plate, but I've never had a shot at a pancake title, so I'm genuinely excited for this one,” Chestnut said in a statement. “Williamsburg's got a real claim to that Pancake Capital title, and I'm looking forward to coming out, meeting the fans and seeing just how many stacks I can put away.” (And yes, Williamsburg really does call itself the Pancake Capital of the World, citing its unusually large number of pancake-house restaurants.)
RECOMMENDED: The best fast food breakfasts in America, ranked
The weekend begins Friday, September 25, with a Pancakes & Pajamas Dinner at the Williamsburg Lodge. The $15 all-you-can-eat event includes live music, pancake-batter portraits from professional pancake-art outfit Dancakes, a kids’ zone and a Q&A with three competitive eaters.
Saturday starts considerably more athletically with the inaugural Run for the Stacks 5K and Short Stack Fun Run, where participants are encouraged to race in pajamas before presumably undoing all that hard work with pancakes. Later comes the World Pancake Eating Championship, followed by another extremely important athletic contest: the Sausage Sprint, a dachshund race in which the winning wiener dog will earn the title of “Top Sausage” and a $250 prize. The festival wraps Sunday with Pancakes Around Town, encouraging visitors to eat their way through Williamsburg’s breakfast spots.
If you can't wait until September, the Williamsburg Pancake Trail runs August 22 through September 30, with visitors checking in at participating pancake houses to earn points toward a commemorative T-shirt.