When Miss America contestants take the stage on Sunday they will be cheered on by contingents of family and friends in Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City.
But as it celebrates its 60th year on television, the competition will also attract millions of viewers, who will celebrate their own contest traditions, some started recently to support a specific contestant, and others going back decades.
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Kelsey's, an authentic southern food restaurant owned by Kelsey and Kim Jackson in Atlantic City, will be hosting a Miss America live viewing party before and during the finals on Sunday.
Miss Delaware Brittany Lewis' father, Willie Lewis, of Brigantine, is the chef at Kelsey's. He'll be in Boardwalk Hall, but he created the food and drink specials for the event.
"We're rooting for Brittany," said Kimberly Jackson, who added that there will be signs posted around the restaurant that will read "Home of Miss Delaware" and several TVs airing the competition, which is being televised from 8-11 p.m. on ABC.
"We've watched Brittany grow up and we're overly thrilled that she's a contestant," Jackson said. "Not only is she extremely pretty, she's also very talented and she's a school teacher in Delaware, which makes her extra special."
Chef Annmarie Chelius of Ocean City remembers watching the pageant on television as a little girl.
"I used to be in awe of how wonderfully the contestants represented themselves," she said. "Not necessarily the way that they looked, but the way that they spoke, they just seemed to exude such confidence."
Chelius is a chef educator at the Academy of Culinary Arts at Atlantic Cape Community College and owner of ClassyChef LLC. Chelius' daughter, Victoria Matt, 13, holds the title of Miss Hospitality in the America's National Teenager, New Jersey, Pageant.
Chelius is getting into the competitive spirit this year by holding a cupcake pageant with her students at Atlantic Cape.
"The students each had to pick three states and they've decorated mini-cupcakes with indigenous cupcake ingredients from that state," Chelius said.
Chelius judges her students' cupcakes on creativity (talent), presentation (evening wear), and an interview, which she uses as a class test.
The chef said that her "Arizona" student used cactus juice in her cupcake, "Maryland" made an Old Bay buttercream, and "Idaho" made a sugar-free cupcake in honor of state winner Sierra Sandison, who is diabetic.
One former television viewer has a ringside seat this year. Miss America Judge Gary Vaynerchuk, a social media entrepreneur, said during a judge's press conference Wednesday that watching Miss America is an American tradition.
Vaynerchuk says he remembers as a child lying on his parents' bed with his sister, watching the show and trying to pick the winner.
"I was born in the former Soviet Union, but I grew up in Edison," he said. "For me, Miss America is an American story."