Portales hosts 45th Peanut Festival
A fall tradition in Portales gets ready for its 45th year as the Peanut Valley Craft & Music Festival gets under way Friday, Oct. 20 and Saturday, Oct. 21 at the Roosevelt County Fairgrounds in Portales.
The festival is all about the arts and crafts and includes a lineup of entertainment from throughout the region. But the name and the flavor pays homage to the local favorite Valencia Peanut. The Valencia is a goober that is smaller but brighter and sweeter than other legumes and has 3-4 nuts per shell. It’s famous roasted in the shell and in candies, cookies, cakes and pies.
Peanut Festival title sponsor Hampton Farms will be supplying all the peanuts at the festival. The Portales Woman’s Club, the oldest service club in the county, will have a booth dedicated to selling peanuts. They’ll have roasted in both salted and unsalted as well as raw peanuts for those holiday bakers. They will also be selling a variety of flavored peanuts and candies including peanut patties and peanut brittle.
Peanut Valley Festival has long been known as the largest and best arts and crafts show in Eastern New Mexico and West Texas. This year’s lineup that should top 100 vendors speaks to that tradition. Included in the wares of the vendors at Peanut Festival are jewelry, horse shoe art, Native American pottery, candles, cutlery, embroidered and engraved items and fine arts. A variety of non-profits and franchised reps are included as well.
This year the Western Frontier Gun Show will run concurrently with the Peanut Festival. The gun show will be held inside the Idsinga Pavilion, the building just north of the Roosevelt
County Events Arena where the PVF booths are housed. There is an admission of $6 for the gun show with children 10 and under free with an adult.
The PVF Health Fair, which has previously been held in the Pavilion, will move inside the Events Arena with the main PVF show. The Health Fair will operate Saturday only from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Flu shots as well as a variety of screenings, including hearing and speech will be available.
The festival features continuous live entertainment. Musical acts include Michael Thompson and Tucumcari Crossroads on Saturday and Colton Stevens, Andy Mason and the Blackwater Band on Sunday. La Casita Elementary School from Clovis will perform Baile Folklorico at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday and the Fusion World Dancers will perform twice. Dance Studio Extreme, Portales Cheer & Tumble, ArchAngel K-9s and Medieval Village re-enactors from the Blackwater Keep will also perform.
There are always numerous activities for kids including bounce houses, face painting, train rides and the Peanut Olympics organized by National Peanut Board mascot Buddy McNutty and the Portales High School Band. Door prizes worth $200 will be given out to participates in the Peanut Olympics. The Olympics are open to ages 4-8 and will take place on the slab at 1 p.m. Saturday.
Kids’ artwork will also be on display in the Goober Gallery inside the main building. Look for a display of local products and recipes along with a celebration of the winners of the 2018 Peanut Festival Food Fair judged earlier this year at the Roosevelt County Fair.
Sponsors of this year’s event are Hampton Farms, Yucca, EDF Renewable Energy, U.S. Bank, Walmart, New Mexico Bank & Trust, Wheeler Mortuary, Xcel Energy, Hunton Insurance Agency, White Rock Crushing, LLC and the New Mexico Peanut Growers Association.
The Peanut Festival is always held on the third Saturday/Sunday in October. Saturday’s hours are 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. with Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Admission is free (except gun show) and parking is also available on the west side off Boston Ave. as well as the south side of the fairgrounds off Lime Street. Handicap parking, with placard is available inside the grounds, both west of the midway buildings and north of the Pavilion. The entertainment stage moves inside the Events Arena if weather is bad. For more information contact the Chamber at (575) 356-8541.
