Things are shaping up well for this weekend’s Hay Daze Festival, but one of its cornerstone contests is still in need of participants.

As of yesterday, three contestants have signed up to participate in the corn dog eating contest, sponsored by Foster Farms. With three in the adult category, and none in the children’s, the Chamber of Commerce anticipates a flood of would-be chow-down champions the morning of the event.

“I hear a lot about (the contest),” Chamber administrative assistant Pat Brady said, “so I feel like we’ll have a lot of people show up and enter right before the event.”

The contest will take place on Saturday, Aug. 14, at noon at the Demopolis Botanical Gardens at the intersection of Washington Street and Glover Avenue. Contestants need to register in advance, and the entry fee is $10.

“We’d like people to pre-register just so we can be sure that we have a place for them,” Brady said, “but if anyone wants to register that morning, we’ll sign up contestants as long as there’s room.”

There are two age groups in the contest: 6 to 16 and 17 and older. Contestants will have 10 minutes to scarf down as many corn dogs as they can. Contestants must consume the entire corn dog – the pig and the blanket – for it to count, although the dog and the breading may be separated, dunked or mangled.

Prizes will be awarded to the winners of each age division.

And for anyone left wondering: The corn dog eating record, according to the International Federation of Competitive Eating, is 12 Fletcher’s Corny Dogs in 10 minutes on Sept. 28, 2003, attained by Richard “The Locust” LeFevre of Henderson, Nev., at the State Fair of Texas.