VIDEO: 48th Annual Watermelon Festival

WATER VALLEY, Miss.(WCBI)—The Watermelon Festival is a deeply rooted tradition in the Water Valley community that, not only, draws people and businesses from all over the country but is something that residents look forward to all year.

The town of Water Valley, that holds a little more than three thousand people will expand, this weekend, to nearly 20 thousand.

Chamber of Commerce Director Zandra Walker says with an event this size the ball has to get rolling immediatly.

“We start on that right from the beginning. We keep a hold on our lists of arts an crafts vendors. We send them out in January along the way we keep in touch with them. We pick up new vendors. Planning made for the walk-run. For everything that goes on we start as soon as this festival is over,”said Walker.

The festival kicked off Friday morning and the down town square has been bustling ever since.

Andy Jones is a long time participant in the Watermelon Festival. He says it’s meeting and welcoming new friends to the town that keeps him coming back each year.

“It’s my hometown. I grew up here, been living here for 60 something years. We see a lot of people that come back for class reunions, get reacquainted, and I’ve had these gourds for 20 years.I just enjoy being here and seeing the people and having them something that they enjoy,”said Watermelon Festival vendor Andy Jones.

Walker has lived in Water Valley her whole life. She says just like the Watermelon Festival has evolved, over the years, so has the town as a whole.

” Over the last few years in the chamber, I’ve seen a lot of growth. We do have an active Main Street Association also. They have taken care of a lot of the revitalization of the buildings. There beautiful. We are so happy to have hotels, a few little hotel boutiques. We are happy to have those to offer to people who come and visit water valley,”said Walker.

Bob Tyler, Director of Economic Development, says the Watermelon Festival has a large impact on the town’s growth.

“This year we have 150 booths here, people from out of town with their products here 150 of those. We don’t know our actual draw on people from out of town. Like last year, it was around 1,500 people from out of town and out of the county, so we are really excited about that,”said Tyler.

Day one of the festival concludes with a firework show. Saturday the festivities will pick back up in the morning at 9am.