The third annual Turlock Melon Carnival will be held Sept. 19-20 – and event organizers are planning even more festivities for this year’s event.
On the first day of the Carnival – a Saturday – will be the Miss/Ms. Melon pageant, a live band (Sound Remedy), and a street dance at the intersection of Main and Center streets – all getting underway at 5 p.m. The following day, beginning at 10 a.m., will be the Kiddie Kaper Parade (kids dress in melon regalia and walking down Main Street), dance numbers, melon-rolling and cantaloupe-eating contests, vendors, and a car and tractor show.
“The downtown business owners had been talking about bringing back the Melon Carnival since about 2020,” said Jenni Brannon, the former owner of Lightly Used Books in Turlock. “Not many thought it would be well attended when we revived it. But it was well attended in 2024, and it was even better last year.”
One of the changes this year will be the judging for the Miss/Ms. Melon Pageant. Instead of a just a one-day competition, contestants will step into meaningful roles in the coming weeks by attending local events, interacting with civic leaders and representing the community.
“Instead of a one-day thing where the girls come and get judged, we wanted to focus more on leadership and civic-mindedness so that we can impress on this next generation why it’s important to be a leader and civic-minded.”
Judges will see participants before the carnival at a community speaking event and compulsory attendance at two different city council meetings.
“At one of the council meetings, they’ll have to get up and comment on an agenda item, or schedule a presentation,” said Brannon, who is now the director of administrative operations for the Boys & Girls Clubs of Stanislaus County. “We want to show them how to get involved with their community.”
Winners of the five different pageant divisions – Little Miss Melon (5-9), Junior Miss Melon (10-14), Miss Melon (15-19), Ms. Melon (20-30), Legacy Ms. Melon (30-plus) – will work to create a legacy gift for the city.
“They reigning queens as a group will decide on some kind of community-focused gift,” said Brannon. “That could be anything from a fundraiser to buy blankets for a shelter, a planting trees, or making regularly scheduled visit to nursing homes.”
The reigning queens, who still have a few months remaining as Turlock royalty, are: Little Miss Melon Ella Nicolau, Junior Miss Melon Kennedy Reyes, Miss Melon Tekoa Murphy, Ms. Melon America Dominguez, and Legacy Ms. Melon Marcie Solomon. The 2024 winners were Little Miss Melon Baily Tucker, Junior Miss Melon Ava Harris, Miss Melon Michelle Padilla, Ms. Melon Jennifer LaMere, and Legacy Ms. Melon Diana Galvan.
Festival promotors are still taking applications for the Miss/Ms. Melon Pageant. To enter, visit TurlockMelonCarnival.com and scroll down until you see the bar labeled “Click Here for Register for Pageant Participation.”
The Melon Carnival was first held in 1911 to promote the local melon industry and drew an estimated 5,000 attendees. The following year, attendance doubled. The carnival was held sporadically through 1925, and by 1956 it had morphed into what we ‘know today as the Stanislaus County Fair.
