Panhandle Watermelon Festival Big Melon Contest – Entries Accepted June 19 & 20

by | Jun 14, 2024 | Washington County Extension Office

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Calling all watermelon producers; commercial growers to gardeners. It’s almost time to enter your finest melons in the Big Melon Contest at the Panhandle Watermelon Festival. The festival and the contest have been summer-time staples in the Central Panhandle for decades. Don’t miss your opportunity to showcase the delicious product of your hard work and have a chance to win prize money.

To make the contest fun for growers of all types of watermelons, contest classes will be broken out by varieties*. The heaviest melon in the class wins. Winners of each class will receive $50, and first runner-up $25. In addition to the classes, there will be a $300 grand prize paid for the overall heaviest melon in the contest, and $250 for the first runner-up.

There is no cost to enter a melon in the contest. However, melons entered in the contest are donated to the festival and will be sold via auction. Proceeds of the auction will go to help off-set the costs of next year’s festival. All contest melons will be on display during the festival and their variety, weight, and grower will be announced during the auction.

The 2024 Panhandle Watermelon Festival will be Friday June 21st and Saturday June 22nd, in Chipley, Florida. The Friday night concert festivities will be held at Jim Trawick Park and Saturday’s events (including the melon auction) will be at the Washington County Ag Center. The auction will begin at 12:00 noon on Saturday.

Melons being entered in the contest will need to be delivered to the Washington County Ag Center prior to the festival. Melons will be received and weighed-in at the Ag Center Wednesday 6/19 between 8:00 AM and 4:00 PM, and Thursday 6/20 between 8:00 AM and 7:00 PM central time. If you have melons that you would like to enter in the contest, but are unable to deliver during the specified times, contact Mark Mauldin prior to 6/19 to make arrangements. Pick-up may be possible, to the extent practical, provided arrangements are made in advance.

The Washington County Ag Center is located at 1424 Jackson Ave. Chipley, FL 32428.

If you have any questions regarding the contest, contact Mark Mauldin at the UF/IFAS Extension, Washington County Office (850-638-6180 or mdm83@ufl.edu).

watermelons

Contest melons on display at the Panhandle Watermelon Festival in Chipley, FL.

*Note: Prizes will be paid for no more than 16 total classes. There must be a minimum of 2 entries of the same variety for the variety to have its own class. If there are more than 15 different varieties with enough entries to constitute a class, the 15 with the most entries will be used (ties will be broken by number of entrants). All melons not in a variety class will be grouped together with one winner and first runner up being selected from the group.

Julie McConnell
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