The city of Newberry held its 79^th annual Watermelon Festival on Saturday.  

Newberry was one of the first communities in the area to begin throwing an annual watermelon festival, toward the end of World War II, and now officials say it is the longest continually running watermelon festival in the country. 

This year’s festival, held at CountryWay Town Square, had about 130 vendors, and drew an estimated 6,000-7,000 attendees, according to Kathryn Thomas, one of the organizers. 

“It shows how community-strong we are,” citizen Naim Erched said in an interview. “We can come together and cut watermelon together.” 

To make cutting melons together possible, event organizers brought in between 300-400 watermelons to slice and hand out for free. Some of those melons faced their destruction in several watermelon-eating contests, grouped by age. 

The event also included a parade, seed spitting contests, hog calling contests and pageants for both pets and young women competing for the Watermelon Queen’s crown. 

Akira the Shiba Inu won the pet pageant, though a plethora of other awards for personality, hair, tricks and other attributes went to several other animals. 

After competing in speeches and eveningwear categories, five Watermelon Queen contestants were narrowed down to one: Savannah Jones took over the mantle from last year’s Tori Mills. 

Jones said she has gained friends and insight during her time running for the position. 

“It’s a really soul-searching experience to run for queen,” Jones said during the eveningwear portion. “I’m so grateful that I’ve been able to come here, meet new people, and just really be surrounded by the love of Newberry.” 

For the next year, Jones will have the responsibility of promoting the watermelon industry through farm tours, grocery store visits, class readings, business openings, galas and pageant crownings, according to the Newberry Watermelon Pageant Facebook page. 

Early in the pageant, the queen contestants joined visiting queens from other cities and counties for a watermelon seed-spitting contest. 

The contest was later repeated for different age groups, and Newberry City Commissioner Tim Marden won the adult category with a spit of over 27 feet. 

Marden said the key to his success was technique and body language. He also noted that many volunteers worked hard to make the event possible, crediting them for the bustling square, full of vendors, music and watermelon. 

“This is just what America is about, or should be about,” Marden said in an interview.