The year was 1911 and William Howard Taft was the president. The Philadelphia Athletics were on their way to a second consecutive World Series title. The structure of the atom had just been discovered by Ernest Rutherford. And there were only a handful of automotive vehicles on the roads, as the Ford Model T had just come out three years prior, which meant little disruption for the inaugural Turlock Melon Carnival.

The Turlock Melon Carnival was organized by the Board of Trade in hopes of promoting and marketing the local melon industry and melon shipping businesses. It was an immediate hit with community members and visitors, drawing an estimated 5,000 people. A second carnival was held in 1912, drawing 10,000. In the ensuing years, the carnival was held intermittently until 1925. By 1956, it had transformed into what we know today as the Stanislaus County Fair. 

Although the fair continues to be a premier event for the city, drawing tourists and being a major economic driver, the Turlock Historical Society & Museum and countless downtown business owners wanted to turn back the clock. On Sept. 20 and 21, after many requests from community members, the melon carnival will return to the downtown area for an abundance of family fun.

Lori Smith, co-owner of Main Street Antiques and member of the Turlock Historical Society & Museum, explained that the photos of the first melon carnivals are always conversation starters.

“With my involvement in the museum, I make posts every few years about how the Melon Carnival started in downtown in 1911 and its evolution into the Stanislaus County Fair,” she said. “We always have a lot of comments from the public going, ‘Let's bring this back.’ And so we also have the Downtown Business Owners Committee operating under the Turlock Downtown Property Owners Association, and we went, ‘Hey, let's do this. Turlock doesn't have any kind of festival. We haven't had one for quite a while now, at least 20 years, so let's just do this.’”

Activities and events will be similar to the ones held more than a century ago, including melon rolling and the Miss Melon Pageant.

The festivities will commence at 6 p.m. Sept. 20 on Main Street between Center and Thor streets when food trucks will be serving up barbecue. At 6:30 p.m., the Miss Melon Pageant will take place. At 8:30 p.m., there will be live music and the streets cleared for dancing until 10:30. A drone show will also take place. 

Saturday’s festivities will coincide with the regularly scheduled Turlock Certified Farmers Market on Main Street’s east side of the train tracks and the Makers Market on the other end. The melon celebration will begin at 10 a.m. with the Kiddie Kaper Parade. The short but unique procession that features just children (many dressed in costumes) will walk down Main Street, beginning near the post office.

Near Palm Street will be a stage for live music, while another stage will be set up on North Center for other entertainment. At 10:30 a.m., an opening ceremony will take place on one of the stages. Half-an-hour later, the folks from Alegria Performing Arts Academy will perform.

Melon-related events will be taking place throughout the day — a watermelon eating contest at 12:30 p.m., a melon rolling competition at 2 p.m. and a cantaloupe eating race at 7:30 p.m. The competitive juices will also be flowing at a cornhole tournament at 3 p.m. Line-dancing lessons at 6 p.m. are also expected to be a popular event.

As the scheduled events take place near each stage, the streets will be filled with vendors and carnival games. After the farmer’s market is wrapped up, vendors will pack up and make way for agricultural equipment displays. From Center Street to Golden State Boulevard, there will be vendors with many serving food that feature melons of some sort. Many downtown businesses will also be open during the carnival, and are planning to decorate their storefronts for the special occasion.

On South Center in front of the Turlock Museum will be “Carnival Row.” There, local nonprofits and parent-teacher organizations will have their own games for individuals to participate in. Each participating group was tasked to create their own games to be played at varying prices. The groups will take home 75% of the funds raised.

“We wanted it to be a community event, but we also wanted the community's participation in it,” Smith explained. “We reached out to the community, and so many people stepped up with so many different aspects of it all, whether it was helping spread the word or pitch ideas for events.”

Joining the Turlock Historical Society & Museum as sponsors thus far is the City of Turlock, Vail Creek Jewelry Designs and Winton-Ireland Strom & Green. Sponsorship packages are still available. Additionally, applications for vendors, live performers and Kiddie Kaper parade participants remain open. Smith added that the carnival committee is accepting donations to help support the event.

“We really hope we can bring something new, unique and fun to downtown,” she said. “If all goes well, this is something that we’d definitely want to continue in future years, so any money we don’t use this year will go towards next year in trying to make that bigger and better. We want to build on this for future years.”
For more information or to submit sponsorship, vendor, entertainment and parade applications, visit www.turlockmeloncarnival.com.