How does a real life cattle drive right in the middle of Main Street traffic sound? What about live gunfight reenactments in Old Town? Or a tamale championship featuring the Lebron James of competitive eating?

The City of Lewisville’s Western Days festival will be held Friday and Saturday. It is full of events, including live music on the Toyota of Lewisville Stage, a parade featuring the cattle, and, of course, the World Tamale Eating Championship.

Joey “Jaws” Chestnut, two-time champion of the World Tamale Eating Championship, will be returning this year to defend his title on the second day of the festival.

Chestnut, the holder of the world record for tamales, is the top-ranked eater in Major League Eating. Chestnut is most well-known for winning the Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating contest for the past eight years.

“The World Tamale Eating Championship presented by Market Street started as a way to set the festival apart,” Western Days event coordinator Daren Watkins said. “It provided a media hook and gives the event a calling card that no other festival can claim, being the headquarters of the world tamale eating championship.”

Watkins described the festival as a celebration of the western heritage that Lewisville and the surrounding areas share.

“Back in the days of the Old West and even before Lewisville was a vibrant, self-sustaining exurb, most if not all of the business and leisure activity took place in the downtown or public square. For that reason, Old Town is a perfect venue for Western Days,” Watkins said.

In addition to the tamale eating competition, the festival will also feature a series of live concerts, with Robert Earl Keen anchoring on Friday night at 10 p.m., Thompson Square and Kevin Fowler performing Saturday at 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. respectively, and many other acts in between. There will also be a wide variety of festival food options provided by vendors at Western Days.

“We have a tremendous musical line up that ranges anywhere from ballet folklorico dancers to national recording and touring artists,” Watkins said.

The festival had its origins in an event called “Western Week,” Watkins said.

“Originally, it was the culmination of a whole week of activities that was centered on the Lewisville Saddle Club’s annual Labor Day weekend rodeo event,” Watkins said. “The rodeo just celebrated its 50th anniversary and the Western Days celebration has been around for more than 20 of them.”

There will also be a “Cowboys, Chuckwagons, and Cattle Drives” themed-parade with longhorns leading it. The parade starts on Cowan and Main St., continues for a mile, and ends on Mill and Purnell. The parade begins Saturday at 11:30 a.m.

The gunfight reenactment is scheduled for 8 p.m. Friday. Watkins said “people of all ages will be entertained” by the reenactment and the performance by the Ghost Horse Dancers Native American group.

Tickets to the festival are free and available on the website for printing. Any proof of residency in Lewisville will also get you in at the front gates. This year is said to be the biggest yet with an expected attendance of more than 25,000 people.