Natural as well as man-made marvels are celebrated in Arkansas during a potpourri of June festivals, timed to attract crowds before the oppressive heat of full-fledged summer keeps us tethered to our air conditioners.
The following annually popular events are best bets among this month's festive choices. Admission to festival grounds is free. More possibilities for an event-focused weekend jaunt can be found at arkansas.com, the website of Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism.
Lum & Abner Festival, Mena, Friday-Saturday. Call (479) 394-8355 or visit visitmena.com
Among the most nationally famous Arkansans of the 1930s and '40s were Lum and Abner (in real life, radio actors Chester Lauck and Norris Goff). Their backwoods comedy show, set in the hamlet of Pine Ridge, was actually broadcast from nearby Mena. That was because Pine Ridge in the '30s had no electricity.
Mena is the site this weekend of the 39th annual festival celebrating the homespun phenomenon that bolstered our state's folksy stereotype. The varied activities include an honest-to-goodness baby crawling contest. Also on the schedule are a car show, firefighters challenge, lumberjack competition and barbecue cook-off.
Bradley County Pink Tomato Festival, Warren, June 10-11. Call (870) 226-5225 or visit pinktomatofestival.com
The South Arkansas vine ripe pink tomato is Arkansas' official fruit and vegetable, so designated by lawmakers in 1987. The yearly Bradley County Pink Tomato Festival dates to 1956, with every Arkansas governor since then having shown up to celebrate the juicy delicacy that tastes like a vegetable but is classified as a fruit.
Three of the Warren festival's most distinctive events are a tomato eating contest, all-tomato luncheon and tomato packing contest. Other activities include a cutest baby competition, turtle races, a steak cook-off and a Little Miss Pink Tomato pageant.
Oil Town Festival, Smackover, June 16-18. Call (870) 725-3521 or visit smackoverar.com
Believe it or not, the state that led the nation in oil production in 1925 was Arkansas, with 70 million barrels. That was thanks to the discovery three years earlier of a 68-square-mile field of "black gold" centered on Smackover, which will celebrate its Roaring '20s boom time June 16-18 at the 45th annual Oil Town Festival.
Staged at Tennyson Park, the fest will feature a potpourri of contests, among them watermelon eating, tug-of-war, horseshoe throwing, drill-bit tossing, rod wrenching, pipe tote and duck race. Visitors can learn a lot about the oil boom at nearby Arkansas Museum of Natural Resources, a state park.
Mount Magazine Butterfly Festival, Mount Magazine State Park and Paris, June 24-25. Call (479) 963-8502 or visit mountmagazinestatepark.com
Arkansas' highest state park and the town of Paris are joint venues for this 20th annual festival focused on the flying creatures whose colorful presence bring so much pleasure to human observers.
Activities at Logan County Fairgrounds in Paris will include a live butterfly observatory, a butterfly release, pony rides, a photography contest and a petting zoo. At Mount Magazine State Park, interpreters will present programs on butterflies and lead nature hikes.
Purple Hull Pea Festival and Tiller Championship, Emerson, June 25. Call (870) 547-3500 or visit purplehull.com
Although Emerson has fewer than 400 residents, this Columbia County town just six miles north of the Louisiana line will roar with excitement on the last Saturday in June. That's thanks to one of the zaniest festival events around, the proudly proclaimed World Championship Rotary Tiller Race.
Preceded by the grandly titled Million Tiller Parade, the race of revved-up garden tillers was dreamed up in 1990 to put Emerson on the tourism map. It has succeeded in drawing national attention to a festival that more prosaically stages a pea-shelling competition and a purple-hull peas and cornbread cook-off.
Weekend on 06/02/2016