Good morning, Cookeville.

Mid-August has reached the stage when the pavement throws the heat back at you and every blast of air conditioning feels like a small kindness. This weekend gives us both indoor refuge and one gloriously specific reason to brave the fairgrounds: wings.

In today's Cookeville Scoop:

Let's get into it.

Get tickets for All Because of Agatha. CPAC's Backstage Series seats the audience on the stage, just steps from the action, and its 34th season opens with Jonathan Troy's suspense-comedy. Shows are Friday at 7 PM, Saturday at 2 PM and 7 PM, and Sunday at 2 PM. Tickets are $15 at the Cookeville Performing Arts Center, 10 E Broad Street. See the schedule and ticket details.

Get a Chicken Festival Wing Pass before Saturday. General admission is only $2 or one personal-care item, and children enter free. If you want to taste the competing wings and cast a vote, grab the optional Wing Pass through the festival's ticket page. The page lists online sales through noon Saturday. Check it for the current pass price, then arrive hungry.

Father Tom's Pub has two plates in its current “This Week” lineup. The Crimson Ginger Salad brings spring mix, mandarin oranges, craisins, red onion, almonds, croutons, feta, cranberry-ginger vinaigrette, and your choice of protein. The Kona Steak Ciabatta goes the other direction with coffee-crusted ribeye, provolone, mushrooms, red peppers, chimichurri fries, and garlic aioli. Father Tom's is at 32 N Cedar Avenue. See the current menu.

The Slice Pizza and Games has easy lunch and dinner math all week. Until 3 PM, $6.50 plus tax gets you a one-topping personal pizza and a soft drink. The $21 dinner special includes a one-topping large pizza and up to four soft drinks. The Slice is open daily from 11 AM to 9 PM at 408 W Jackson Street, Suite C. Check the specials.

Some events take a paragraph to explain. This one does not: local food trucks make wings, you taste them, and the crowd picks a winner.

Cookeville's first Chicken Festival takes over the Putnam County Fairgrounds this Saturday, Aug. 15, from 10 AM to 4 PM. The heart of the day is a $1,000 wing competition. Buy an optional Wing Pass, sample the entries, and vote for the food truck that deserves the prize. It is lunch with consequences, which is really the best kind of lunch. The crowd vote also gives the afternoon a built-in argument, preferably a friendly one.

There are two layers of admission, so here is the useful part. Entry to the festival is $2 or one personal-care item, and children get in free. Wing Passes for tasting and voting are sold separately through the event's ticket page. The current pass price was not posted in the accessible listing, so check before you buy rather than trusting a number that may have changed.

The day stretches beyond the competition. The official lineup includes live music and entertainment, a kids zone with activities and bounce houses, local vendors and artisan goods, a chicken scavenger hunt, mascot fun, desserts, and drinks. That gives the non-wing specialists in your group plenty to do while the serious judges debate sauce, smoke, and crispness.

The Putnam County Fairgrounds are at 155 Fairgrounds Street. Bring the $2 admission or a personal-care item, give yourself a few hours, and go prepared to defend your ballot. See the full Chicken Festival details.

Four chances to catch All Because of Agatha. The suspense-comedy plays Friday at 7 PM, Saturday at 2 PM and 7 PM, and Sunday at 2 PM at CPAC, 10 E Broad Street. Tickets are $15. The close-up Backstage Series setup makes this a good indoor option when you want theater without a distant seat. City event details.

Declaration Walk plus Becoming America. Take the free, self-guided Declaration of Independence Walk through downtown exhibit panels, then finish at the Cookeville History Museum, 40 E Broad Street. The walk is listed daily from 8 AM to 8 PM through Sept. 7. The museum's free Becoming America: Voices of 1776 exhibit is open Thursday through Saturday, 10 AM to 4 PM. Walk details and museum information.

Cookeville Farmers Market at 201 Mahler Avenue is open daily from 6 AM to 6 PM. It is free to browse, parking is first come, and the mix of vendors changes by the day. That makes it the flexible stop in this issue: go early, see what is on the tables, and let the market decide the rest. City market information.

If this issue helps with your weekend, forward it to the friend who always has an opinion about wings. Know a restaurant special, church event, fundraiser, or pop-up we should catch next time? Reply and send it my way. The best tips usually start with somebody saying, “You might have missed this.”

Thanks for spending part of your Thursday with me. Whether you choose the theater, the museum, or a plate of wings, I hope you find something good close to home. May your favorite sauce advance to the final round. 🧡

-- Travis