Video: Water Valley Hosts the 44th Annual Watermelon Fest

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WATER VALLEY, Miss. (WCBI) – This time of year you can find a festival to attend almost every weekend. Many go for the food, others for the arts and crafts, but this festival offers more than just the usual vendors. Here, you can find watermelons on every corner. Not only can you eat all the watermelon you want, there are even games for all ages to participate in like the seed spitting contest.

“I just moved here so this is why it’s my first time. Well, I didn’t win a prize, but my mom said I did really good,” says Hannah White.

White joined in on the activities just for fun, but others returned to defend their title.

John Swinkowski says one of his techniques was taking advantage of mother nature.

“I just felt the breeze and I spit the seed. Last year I did the eating contest and I won on that and the throwing contest,” says Swinkowski.

No matter who wins, John says these games are about spending time with friends.

“It’s just a fun competition against friends. A lot of my friends that I have here and just relates to the Watermelon Carnival with all the Watermelon activities,” says Swinkowski.

One new addition this year’s festival had was the free sample of homemade root beer at the Yalobusha Brewing Company.

“You know I like to think a lot of root beer kind of pungent. Root beer is not my go-to drink when I go somewhere, but I like this because it’s suttle in flavor. It doesn’t have that like abruptness that most root beers have and it has a little bit of sweetness once it goes down. I’m really liking it,” says Beth Ziegenhorn.

Over a thousand visitors came by to test the root beer and view the brewery equipment on display. Amos Harvey, one of the head brewers says the support has been overwhelming.

“Today we’ve had a great response and the visitors coming in town are from Water Valley. The Watermelon carnival is always a big class reunion time so we’ve had people from Michigan, up North, and out West. A lot more interest than I even expected especially from some of the towns people which has been such a positive response,” says Harvey.

So no matter what brings you to the Watermelon festival each year, it’s the people of Water Valley that make the festival worth visiting.

The winners for each category in the watermelon games took home a prize.