Festivals: Harvest and Promotional Festivals

A large percentage of American food festivals celebrate local crops or industries, and they serve as promotional opportunities with attendant economic benefits. Nearly every fruit and vegetable produced in the United States is showcased in at least one festival. In the Salinas valley of California, where 75 percent of the state’s artichokes are produced, Castroville hosts an annual Artichoke Festival. Hatch, New Mexico, also known as the “chili capital of the world,” celebrates its important crop, as well as the unique culture of New Mexico, every Labor Day weekend. The National Apple Harvest Festival in Arendtsville, Pennsylvania, promotes apples with heritage demonstrations of cider pressing and apple butter cooking. Cherry production in Traverse City, Michigan, is so important to the local economy that it is celebrated in an eight-day extravaganza called the National Cherry Festival. Alexander W. Livingston, a resident of Reynoldsburg, Ohio, is honored for commercial development of the tomato at the town’s annual festival, which features tomato exhibits and tomato cookery.