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Hope Watermelon Festival - Continued.....
Live
music is also a festival mainstay and this year will include
country, blues, Southern gospel, Western swing, bluegrass and
rock performers. While its wide range of activities offers plenty
of enjoyment for young and old, the tradition represented by
the festival also contributes to its status as one of Arkansas’s
premier annual events.
Long
before Hope gained nationwide recognition as the birthplace
of President Bill Clinton, the Hempstead County seat had achieved
a similar measure of fame through the county’s watermelons.
As
early as the 1920s, melons weighing in at close to 200 pounds
had piqued national interest. Having a watermelon grow to that
size is not a simple matter of luck or prayer, though both may
help. “Raising a giant watermelon,” wrote a worker in the Depression-
era W.P.A.Arkansas Writer’s Project, “requires as much art as
growing a rare orchid. The farmer selects an exceptionally sturdy
vine and clears the field around it.
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