Winterville’s Watermelon Festival has Grown into a Big Time | Eastern North Carolina Now

    The once small, sleepy village of Winterville, North Carolina is fast becoming Pitt County’s version Cary, North Carolina. Winterville, like Cary, is just south of the largest city (Greenville) in the county, and the region, with a major North Carolina highway (NC Hwy. 11) running north into that larger city just as NC Hwy. 64 runs into Raleigh in the county of Wake. Rather than folks leaving these once very rural villages, like Winterville and Cary, to move into these respective county’s much larger county seats, Winterville, like Cary, has become the bedroom community of its thriving counterpart.

    This past weekend in the town of Winterville at the A. G. Cox Middle School Sports Complex / Winterville Parks and Recreation Park, tens of thousands of residents of Greenville, and from the region at large, converged on the once sleepy village; using every existing side street for parking, to attend the 25th annual Watermelon Festival, which more resembled a county fair combined with a three day music festival. Wafting through the festive air was the distinct smell of grilled onions, green peppers and kielbasa, fresh squeezed lemons, hydraulic fluid and packed grease. Fortunately, there were no prize livestock packed into pens for all the crowd to view … and smell.
    The crowd moved in lock-step through the various checkpoints to the last one where one could plop down their ticket, have the bags rumaged through and find a place in the festival seating concert for ther favored performers: Above and Below.

    The crowd's security was a high prority as the Winterville Police Dept. and the Pitt County Sherriff's Dept. combined forces to insure the public's safety: Above and Below.

    What the Winterville Watermelon Festival is quickly becoming famous for is the music component of the three day celebration. One need only consider the traffic flow to understand what the crowd wants - it’s the melodies. On the first night of the festival, the soothing soul sounds of The Four Tops played with Carolina Beach Club as their opening act. On the second night on that warm humid night in Winterville with thunderheads on the horizon threatening the swelling crowds, Blessed Union of Souls hit the stage, located each night in the baseball infield, with their special guest 80’s glam-rock combo Breakfast Club. Saturday night was Country Music Night, with Country stars: Jason Michael Carroll and Jake Owen, with new alternative Country combo The Jane Dear Girls.
    The tale of the two stages: The Jane Dear Girls - above and Backyard Grove - below.

    On that night, I estimate that 8 to 10 thousand revelers made their way to the festival to plot down 20.00 for a ticket for the concert, or, to a much lesser extent to make the amusement and concessions sector of the festival. Interestingly on that Saturday night in that aforementioned sector, while The Jane Dear Girls made their alternative country music before a swelling crowd of thousands, a small local band, known as Backyard Groove.
    The crowd was everywhere and the smell of food and drink was to follow: Above and Below.

    Before a small crowd on a small stage was this 5 man band, Backyard Groove, who obviously enjoyed playing their jazz / rock fusion as a unit, and individually knew how to play their instruments well. I rather appreciated the concept of the small stage for the small unadvertised band. It provides both good music for the crowd and an opportunity to play for the band. That’s what festivals are all about; bring folks together. Seeing the thousands tying up traffic, and walking lock-step to get to where the fun is, I surmise the once sleepy little town of Winterville had themselves a most successful Watermelon Festival.
    In the carnival section of the festival, there were a quite a few exhilerating rides: Above. Eventually, after so much fun, ones still has to return home: Below.