HUNTSVILLE —
Summer just isn't summer without a slice of red, ripe watermelon.
Nowhere is this tradition held more firmly and dear to the heart than in Luling, where the Watermelon Thump is held each year.
This year's festival runs from June 21 to June 24 in Luling, which is located less than an hour outside San Antonio, and features musical acts, arts and crafts and the requisite watermelon eating.
While the festival features traditional fair happenings like a carnival, parade, beer garden and car show, competition is key in Luling.
There's a competition among young women to see who gets to wear the crown and sash of Thump Queen. Farmers get in on the action by trying to grow the year's largest watermelon.
Young and old alike flex their competitive streaks with several watermelon seed spitting contests with categories for children, adults and teams. For the truly competitive, there's a Guinness Book of World Records title up for grabs. The current seed spitting champion is Lee Wheelis, who spit a seed 68 feet and nine inches in 1989.
For everyone else, there's a watermelon eating contest, where contestants vie to see who can finish a slice the fastest.
The festival begins Thursday, June 21 at 5:30 p.m. with food, arts and crafts and musical act Pale Horses. Thom Sheperd and Kevin Fowler will perform Friday, June 22, from 7 p.m. to midnight. Saturday, June 23 boasts free admission until 1 p.m. Musical acts include The Cody Johnson Band, Charlie Robison and The Bellamy Brothers. Johnny Dee's Rocket 88's and Billy Bacon and the Forbidden Pigs will take the stage on Sunday, June 24.
The Watermelon Thump was the brainchild of Hermon Allen, a school principal in 1984. Allen wanted to honor the area's watermelon growers, according to www.watermelonthump.com.
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