McDade beats the heat with 75th annual Watermelon Festival
McDADE, Texas - McDade, Texas is beating the summer heat with its annual McDade Watermelon Festival, now in its 75th year.
Every second Saturday in July the community takes part in the event, which kicked off Saturday morning with a watermelon weigh-in and the second annual Sweatin' Melons 5K.
Some of the melons clocked in at over 100 lbs.
Following the weigh in, streets were filled with floats.
WATCH THE FULL PARADE BELOW
"They had the float go by earlier that had all the old royalty on it, well she's got one or two were in it I got two who are in it, the other one is my oldest son," says parade goer Teresa Anderson.
Joyce Bowen and Teresa Anderson are sisters from Elgin who have been coming to the festival since they were young girls.
"Our grandparents raised watermelon, so we were in the watermelon patch a lot," says Anderson.
Joyce and Teresa hope to pass this tradition down to their children and grandchildren
"But there's new adventures that keep going every year and hopefully it will keep growing and staying that's the wonderfulness of it," says Joyce Bowen.
MORE TEXAS NEWS
- Austin weather: Warming trend with 100°+ temps next week
- Thousands celebrate at annual Round Rock Fourth of July Parade
- Backpacks for Hope aims to provide supplies, support to Texas kids in shelters
The heat didn't stop the crowd from taking part of the festivities. Those who spoke with FOX 7 Austin Saturday morning, shared why they love coming back every year.
"The watermelons, yes seeing how big they grow we were always so curious how they get them that big to me as kids we use to say they would put air in them and pump them up," says Bowen.
"It's all just a bunch of locals, they get together there's no one really from out of state, mostly people I know," says paradegoer Caleb Kvamme.
And what is a watermelon festival without an eating contest or a seed spitting contest?
New to the festival this year is a BBQ cook-off, a cornhole tournament and a watermelon fashion show contest.