Hope Watermelon Festival: Arkansas, USA - August

The 27th Annual Hope Watermelon Festival, 7-10 August in Hope, Arkansas, is expected to draw 50,000 people to spit, dribble, crunch and slice their way through a whole bunch of the fabulous fecund fruit.

The festival itself dates back to the mid-1920s -when some things were free- the city’s Chamber of Commerce staged a one-day event each year, the residents would offer a slice to passengers on the many trains that passed through the area.

Nowadays the festival includes the obviously relevant activities of archery, arm wrestling and baseball card swapping. There are nearly 300 arts and crafts booths and a variety of music is presented over the four days, including country, blues, southern gospel, western swing, bluegrass and rock. Whatever presses your buttons!

The most fun, of course, is to be had with the multitude of melon-orientated events. The Watermelon Olympics pits local teams against each other in such events as the melon-toss, the seed-spitting contest and the watermelon-eating contest. Spectators are able to check out the largest specimens of the year, some weighing up to 100 kgs. The festival also features a melon auction -coz all things now are consumerable- giving people a chance to buy a massive melon, or those with a smaller appetite can buy a slice for 50¢. Either way, an excellent chance to clean your ears out with the juicy ends of a slice of watermelon!