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franklin county times

Watermelon Festival a success

Asher Campbell picks out a piece of watermelon after the opening ceremonies of the 34th Annual Franklin County Watermelon Festival on Friday evening. | Photo by Kellie Singleton.
Asher Campbell picks out a piece of watermelon after the opening ceremonies of the 34th Annual Franklin County Watermelon Festival on Friday evening. | Photo by Kellie Singleton.

Bobby Bolton stood in the park behind First Baptist Church in downtown Russellville Saturday morning and smiled as he looked around at all of the people talking, laughing and enjoying fresh watermelon.

The Russellville resident was actually the brains behind the very first Watermelon Festival held in the city 34 years ago, and he said he could have never dreamed what a tremendous event it would become over the years.

“I just never thought it would be this big,” Bolton said.

“Every year it just seems to get bigger and bigger and better and better. All of the vendors, all the entertainment, all the contests – it’s all just great.”

As Bolton was enjoying the festivities, he ran into his friend Walter Kilgore, who was also part of the very first Watermelon Festival.

“Walter grew Crimson Sweet watermelons for that first festival and won the ‘best tasting’ prize several times,” Bolton said.

“He was here for the first festival and has been coming back just about every year since.”

Bolton said he knew that, even though he came up with the idea for the festival years ago, it has taken many people over the years to continue the tradition each August.

“It has taken people like Walter, J.C. Grissom, Roy Grissom, the city officials, the Chamber and many others who have worked hard and have been dedicated to this festival over the year to make it into the big event that it is now,” he said.

“It has become one of the biggest festivals in the area, and I’m proud of our community for continuing to support it.”

As is typical for most Watermelon Festivals, the August heat showed up in full force, especially on Saturday, but Franklin County Chamber of Commerce director Cassie Medley said the heat didn’t stop the crowds for coming out to enjoy the festivities.

“Last year we had some unseasonably cooler weather during the festival, so I thought the heat and sun this year might have an effect on the crowd, but we still had thousands of people who showed up this year,” Medley said.

And she added that she believed they saw record-breaking numbers Saturday night in particular as nationally-known country music star Sammy Kershaw headlined this year’s festival.

“I really couldn’t believe the sheer number of people who were there on Saturday night,” she said.

“You could barely walk through the First Baptist parking lot. Trent Stephenson also took me up in his scissor lift to see the crowd from higher up, and the crowd wasn’t just contained to the stage area – there were tons of people still walking up and down the street enjoying the vendors.

“We had a tremendous amount of community support as well as people from out of town who came to this year’s festival.”

Medley said this year’s arts and crafts vendors as well as the food vendors were all complimentary of the festival.

“We always want to make sure that our vendors have a good time at the festival because we want them to come back,” she said.

“Many of these vendors have been coming for years and have become must-see or must-eat stops for lots of people. We are glad to have them coming back and glad to have new, fresh faces each year, too.”

Medley said this was the second year for the Franklin County Chamber of Commerce to have a layout for the festival that reduced congestion and made the flow of foot traffic easier through the festival route.

“In years past, we’ve had vendor tents in the middle of Jackson Avenue, as well as down the sides, for several blocks, but last year we eliminated the middle row of vendors except for one block. This really seemed to open up that space from the block where the Roxy is up to the courthouse block where the games and rides were and allowed traffic to flow better, so we left it that way this year as well.”

Another new aspect of this year’s festival was the addition of popular movie characters who were set up for photo opportunities around town.

“We had Elsa from Frozen, Spider-Man, Captain America and even the McDonald’s Hamburglar,” Medley said.

“I think the kids really enjoyed this, and I think there were even several adults who enjoyed it, too.”

Medley said the Antique Tractor Show as well as the Car and Truck Show went over well, too.

“We always have a lot of people who show up for the car and tractor shows, and we think this is a great aspect to our festival. We truly do have something for everyone – cars, trucks, tractors, food, games, rides, contests, entertainment – we have it all.”

Entertainment is always a highlight of each festival and Medley said this year’s entertainment line-up was no exception.

“We had a great turn-out for our ‘Franklin County Friday Night’ entertainment line-up and we are truly blessed with an abundance of musical talent in our county,” she said.

“We also had great entertainment on Saturday, which culminated with Sammy Kershaw’s performance Saturday night. Sammy put on a great show and brought in a big crowd from all over the area. We couldn’t have asked for anything better, and the Chamber really appreciates Corey Jackson with Affordable Service Heating and Air and Trent Stephenson with Stephenson Electric Service for making the headline concert with Sammy Kershaw possible.”

Medley expressed thanks to the many people who had a hand in making this year’s festival a success, including the Chamber board of directors, Gary Cummings and other city officials, the Russellville police department, fire department, and street department, emergency medical personnel, the Russellville Electric Department, the local businesses, First Baptist Church for use of their facilities, Watermelon Queen Tori King, emcee Bert Fowler, and the members of Franklin County Junior Leadership, who helped throughout the day cutting watermelon and picking up trash.

“There were so many people who gave of their time to make this festival a success,” Medley said.

“Everyone worked together and the festival wouldn’t have been such a success without the hard work of so many people and volunteers.

“This was one of our best year’s yet, and now it’s time to start planning for next year’s festival to make it even better.”

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