Zip Upham, Chairman of the Cantaloupe Festival and Country Fair, made the rounds this week promoting the festival and gathering support for the 35th Annual event that will be held August 27 – 29.
He reported to the Churchill County Commission on Wednesday morning where he received a $10,000 donation from the county, after speaking to Rotary on Tuesday during their meeting. Upham is backed by a seasoned group of volunteers on the festival committee which is made up of Vice-Chairman Sue Frey who heads up the Country Fair, Secretary Kim Klenakis, Treasurer Lori Ford, Todd Moretto who handles the entertainment, Rick Lattin who organizes the Farmer’s Market, and Michelle Rogers who is in charge of the sponsors.
The festival has a rich history in the Lahontan Valley as a premier community event bringing thousands of attendees from across the west to Fallon for three days of fun, celebrating agriculture and small-town values.
According to the festival website, the famed Hearts of Gold Cantaloupe saw its start in the Swingle Bench area of Churchill County in 1911, with the careful experimentation of crossbreeding by a local man, O.J. Vannoy who had found the seeds that were originally developed in Benton Harbor, Michigan.
These luscious melons were grown here in abundance in the 1920s and 1930s as the demand for them in the Eastern U.S. grew; it has even been rumored that the Fallon Hearts of Gold were served in the White House! The hard rind made this variety ideal for cross country rail shipments, and the high price per crate made this a crop that's price was worth the risk to the Fallon farmers.
Not all good things last, however, as the market crashed in the late 1930s and our festival's namesake almost met its extinction. The once prosperous melon crop was replaced by the more stable production of alfalfa in the Lahontan Valley and was only kept in production by a group of six Chinese immigrant families.
The Hearts of Gold persisted, and a few local families were able to revive the vine back to its former glory.
In 1985, a group of locals saw the opportunity to bring back our beloved melon as well as to create a festival to fill the gap left by the absence of the Nevada State Fair and Country Fair – and thus was made a "Golden Return" and the start to what has become one of Fallon's great events to bring fun and excitement to the community every harvest season.
This year the festival will open on Friday at 1:00 p.m. after organizers run the Farm Festival Friday morning for local 5th graders. Local musical talent will perform on the Pavilion Stage beginning at 5:00 p.m. with Dalton Kaady and Chris Reed, and then at 6:00 p.m. Will Shamberger will perform. At 8:00 p.m. in the large arena at the fairgrounds, local musician Steven Christie will open for the Nashville Stars Live show which showcases impersonators of Luke Bryan, Eric Church, and Thomas Rhett.
Saturday the festival opens at 9:00 a.m. with performances running all day on the Pavilion Stage, fair exhibits in the multi-purpose building, The Farmer’s Market with all local growers including Rau Bees, and Lattin Farms. Local 4-H, Grange, and FFA students will be displaying their live animals, there will be a tractor show, and carnival rides and on the main Concert stage beginning at 8:00 p.m. Moustache Kitty followed by the Ultimate Van Halen Experience.
Sunday the festival runs from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and features local musicians the Coaches Band, and Larry Little.
In spite of parking challenges this year that will be solved by running shuttles and golf carts from the auxiliary parking lot south of Miners Road to the Main Gate, the festival is shaping up to be a grand community celebration. Organizers and encouraging the early purchase of tickets online which are available at falloncantaloupefestival.com and are $8 for an adult and $2 for kids under 10. Weekend passes are available for $12 for an adult and $3 for kids ages three to ten years old.
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