Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Big crowd expected at festival

More than 40,000 visitors are expected to flood into Hope for the 26th Annual Hope Watermelon Festival.

Mark Keith, executive director of the Hope-Hempstead County Chamber of Commerce, spoke to the Prescott Kiwanis Club about the upcoming festival.

The festival is scheduled Aug. 8-11 at Fair Park in Hope, and will feature plenty of arts and crafts, along with several musical acts.

Keith promised there would be plenty of melons around for those attending, as between 1,500 and 2,000 are being bought to be sold by the slice at the festival. He said J.T. Still is buying the melons again this year.

The Chamber, he said, buys the watermelons from several area growers, and this year there was plenty of rain for the fruit.

According to Keith, there will be more than 200 booths at the festival, with people showing off their skills in making arts and crafts.

The real thrill, though, may be in the entertainment area. Saxophone player Ace Cannon will be one of the featured acts, as will Dale Hawkins on Friday night.

Saturday will feature Joe Purvis and his band  "Little Joe and the BKs", along with Gov. Mike Huckabee and his band "Capitol Offense".

Velora Bright Haltom has taken care of Sunday's entertainment by booking the Florida Boys, one fo the top gospel groups around.

Keith said the festival's annual 5-k run-walk has been listed as one of the top 20 in a national running magazine. The race is expected to draw between 400 and 500 runners again this year.

One of the more popular, and fun events, is the Watermelon Olympics. This grew out of the former tug-of-war competition, which was halted after business and industry leaders complained their employees had gotten too competitive in trying to win the event.

The Watermelon Olympics, though, is still competitive, but in a different way. The teams all have specific duties to perform, all to be done while carrying a watermelon around the obstacle course.

The Watermelon Olympics will be held Friday at 6 p.m.

Keith said the University of Arkansas Community College at Hope wanted to be involved in the festival this year. Much thought was given to an event for UACCH, with the end result being the college will sponsor "hillbilly horseshoes".

In this event, toilet seats are used in place of actual horseshoes. College officials, he said, experimented to find out which seats worked best and will be ready for competition when the festival arrives.

Tiller races will be held in the rodeo arena during the festival. This will be the first year for this particular event, though its popularity has been spreading at other festivals.