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Thousands Flock To Jay Peanut Festival (With Photo Gallery)
October 5, 2014
The weather was perfect Saturday as tens of thousands of people attended the first day of the Jay Peanut Festival at Brenda Gabbert’s 56-acre farm near Jay.
“I describe it to people as being like an old-fashioned county fair, without the carnival rides,” said Gabbert, who has coordinated the festival with her husband, Gene, for 25 years.
“It’s all about farming and rural life. That’s what we try to show people,” she said. “It’s good for the whole family. There is something for everybody. We really cater to the kids.”
About 70,000 people are expected to have attended the festival by the time it closed Sunday evening.
For a photo gallery, click here.
The festival site is a functioning farm, with 40 acres of peanuts – which is managed by a farmer who leases it from the Gabberts – and 16 acres that includes the couple’s home and a field of hay.
Their property also includes two museums – a farming museum and replica of a 1940s style John Deere dealership – as well as a fleet of restored classic tractors. All of that is incorporated into the festival.
“My husband has all of these tractors he’s restored himself,” Gabbert said. “We let other people bring their stuff if they want to show it.”
At the festival, the Jay Volunteer Fire Department has exclusive domain over the sale of boiled peanuts. The department uses the money raised to help supplement its modest public funding. Other vendors will offer green peanuts – the kind patrons take home to boil for themselves – roasted peanuts, fried peanuts, peanut brittle, baked goods with peanuts and many of the other forms the protein-packed snack can take.
The festival offers pony and horse rides, stage coach rides, hay rides, a rock climbing wall, a bungee jump, a mechanical bull, train rides and inflatable attractions.
Admission and parking at the festival are free, a point of pride for Gabbert. The festival is funded solely through vendor fees.
“We get letters from people who tell us this is the only thing they can afford to come to,” she said. “They have kids and they don’t have the money to go to things that have admission. They can come here and not spend a penny if they don’t want to.”
The Jay Peanut Festival dates to 1990 when the Gabberts started the event in memory of their daughter, Melissa, a 19-year-old who died earlier that year from cancer.
For a photo gallery, click here.
Pictured: Saturday at the Jay Peanut Festival. Photos by Nikki Golden Photography for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
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