You'd never know by looking at Phil Hodgson's watermelon patch that this cold, damp summer has been a tough one for homegrown produce.

Mark Taylor, who's helping plan Pardeeville's 42nd annual Watermelon Festival, took a look at the patch just the other day to ensure there would be enough watermelons for the speed-eating and seed-spitting contests and for giving away free slices all day Saturday.

"They're huge," Taylor said of the melons in Hodgson's patch near Wyocena. "And there are tons of watermelons there. I don't think we'll have a problem."

Saturday's Watermelon Festival - the event that put Pardeeville on the map, or at least in a Wisconsin trivia book - continues as a Saturday-after-Labor Day tradition, rain or shine.

In its heyday, the festival attracted several thousand people. Attendance has dropped significantly in recent years, and the 41st edition of the Watermelon Festival almost didn't happen a year ago, because planners had trouble finding enough volunteers to put the festival together. Volunteers turned out in the nick of time, and attendance in 2008, in the low four-figure numbers, was about double what it had been in the immediate preceding years, Taylor said.

A "core group" of about three or four people spearheaded the planning this year, he said.

Among the changes: No alcohol will be sold. Instead of having a local tavern provide concessions, the food and beverages offered at this year's festival will be sold by festival volunteers.

Also new this year is an official T-shirt. Gina Fitzgibbon of Pardeeville designed a shirt featuring a wedge of watermelon with a smile-shaped bite out of the middle - the design that beat 11 others to be chosen as the winner.

Taylor said the shirts will not be available at the festival, but orders for them will be taken there, with delivery likely in a few days.

Pardeeville High School's junior class will oversee a variety of children's games.

Several craft booths will be included.

ljerde@

capitalnewspapers.com

745-3587

If you go

What: The Pardeeville Watermelon Festival, featuring the U.S. Watermelon Seed-spitting and Speed-eating Championship.

When: Saturday. Craft show and children's games begin at 10 a.m.; sign-up for competitions begins at noon; contests start at 2 p.m. The festival will happen rain or shine.

Where: Chandler Park, Pardeeville. Admission is free.

What's to eat? Unlimited free slices of Columbia County-grown watermelon. Concession stands offering various other foods and beverages for sale (no alcohol this year) will be on the grounds.

Web: www.pardeevillewatermelonfestival.com.