The Franklin Farmers Market hosted its annual Franklin Watermelon Festival on Saturday, August 19th presented by Market sponsor, Williamson Medical Center. You can view all the photos of the Watermelon Festival here.
The annual Watermelon Festival grows larger every year, and this year the Franklin Farmers Market had record crowds to celebrate the fruit of summer. Fun events included a seed spitting contest for adults and kids and a very popular watermelon eating contest for both kids and adults. Other watermelon festival activities included free face painting and games for the whole family.
One contest had over 400 entries- the Guess the Weight contest. The largest melon at the market came in at 49lbs 8oz. The weight was guessed perfectly by market customer, Terri Dixon who got to take the melon home.
One of the most popular contests of the day is the Watermelon Eating Contest. Adults and kids get their own contest and eagerly participate for bragging rights on who can eat a piece of watermelon the fastest (with hands behind their back, of course). This year in an amazing coincidence, our winners of the kids and adult contests are father and son- the fun must run in the family!
The winners of the 2017 Kids Watermelon Eating Contest are:
1st Place- Thomas Malone
2nd Jason Wang
3rd Place Kellen Sakkinen
The winners of the 2017 Kids Watermelon Eating Contest are 1st Place Thomas Malone, 2nd Place Oakley Smith and 3rd Place Kellen Sakkinen. Congratulation to all the kids who participated!
Kids love watermelon!
The winners of the 2017 Adult Watermelon Eating Contest are:
1st Place- Tim Malone
2nd Place-Oakley Smith
3rd Place- Nicole Medina
The winners of the Adult Watermelon Eating Contest are right to left, 1st Place Tim Malone, 2nd Place Oakley Smith, and 3rd Place Nicole Medina. Congratulations on a great job by everyone!
We think the Adult winners had the most fun!
To help us celebrate the watermelon even more, the Leiper’s Fork Carving Club carved beautiful and unique creations from watermelons in a matter of minutes! It was truly amazing to see what they could do with an ordinary watermelon and customers enjoyed learning more about their artwork.
The watermelon seed-spitting contest continued throughout the morning and the winners were announced at 11:30am. It was amazing to see how far some of our smallest “spitters” could get their seed to go!
The winners of the 2017 Kids Watermelon Seed Spitting Contest are:
1st Place- Warner Campbell at 17ft.5in
2nd Place- Gavin Murphy at 16ft 11in
3rd Place- Isabell Campbell at 15ft 9in
The winners of the 2017 Adult Watermelon Seed Spitting Contest are:
1st Place- Mark Mickholtzick at 32ft 9in
2nd Place- Steve Redding at 30ft 5in
3rd Place- Todd Atkins at 28ft 5in
A Huge Thank You Williamson Medical Center for your 6th year of supporting our farmers market! This event is not possible without your support!
The Franklin Farmers Market vendors and local farmers joined in the fun celebration in their own way. Padrino’s Pops quickly sold out of their famous watermelon pops, and Belle Springs Lemonade wowed the crowd with their handmade watermelon lemonade with melons sourced from the farmers, and Califarmia had their own homemade watermelon water concoction. By 11am Delvin Farms had given away 250 watermelons in samples along with Colbert Farm who gave hundreds of free watermelon samples to the many customers who attended the festival. The Franklin Watermelon Festival ends the summer with a bang!
The Franklin Farmers Market is held every Saturday from 8am-1pm behind the Factory in Franklin, TN. The market is a 15 yr old producers only market with the largest assembly of local farmers providing fresh farm food all year long each Saturday morning. Find us at 230 Franklin Road behind the Factory. Visit us online at www.franklinfarmersmarket.com or follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for the latest market news. Visit this link to view all the photos of this years Franklin Watermelon Festival.
A Big Thank You to the Williamson Herald for your coverage and promotion of this years Franklin Watermelon Festival!
