Sunland-Tujunga is a community of about 50,000 people nestled in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains but within the boundaries of the City of Los Angeles, on the edge of the San Fernando Valley. The Sunland-Tujunga Lions Club, which was founded in 1949, found itself about a dozen years later in need of a fundraising activity, so the Lions held a watermelon festival in 1961, inspired by the annual Kingsburg Watermelon Festival in Kingsburg, CA.

The festival has been held every year since, and with a few exceptions, it has been held each year at a local community park in Sunland-Tujunga. But the festival increased in popularity over the years and eventually outgrew that venue. Attendees at a recent Sunland-Tujunga Watermelon Festival enjoy some free slices of melons. For 2013, the 52-year-old festival moves to the Rose Bowl, where some 50,000 pounds of donated watermelons will be sliced and passed out free. (Photo by Zion Images, courtesy of Sunland-Tujunga Lions Club)The park was simply inadequate for the 20,000 attendees the festival attracted in some recent years, according to Marynance Schellenbach, club historian.

So organizers went in search of a better, more capacious location for the 52nd annual Sunland-Tujunga Lions Club Watermelon Festival and ended up going big time by booking the world-famous and newly renovated Rose Bowl "America's Stadium" in Pasadena, just 13 miles from Sunland-Tujunga, for the Aug. 16-19 event.

According to promotional materials for the festival, its 52nd year will feature watermelon carving demonstrations, watermelon recipe contests, watermelon eating contests, seed-spitting contests, a wearable art contest and nightly prize drawings as well as free watermelon slices and "a free spin on the Watermelon Wheel for additional prizes."

There will be vendor booths, arcade games carnival rides, and watermelon-themed games and attractions, an array of festival food favorites, and top talent entertainment.

Significantly, the National Watermelon Promotion Board is a new sponsor for the event and will be actively participating in organizational and promotional efforts as well as in helping out onsite during the festival.

The national watermelon queen and probably several state queens will be attending, according to Kenton Kidd, western U.S. merchandiser for the NWPB.

"We are very pleased to be expanding the festival this year and relocating it to the Rose Bowl Stadium," Ara Zeiith, president of the Sunland-Tujunga Lions Club, said in a press release. "We are also thrilled with the participation of National Watermelon Promotion Board, who is coming on board this year as a sliver sponsor."

The release quoted Gordon Hunt, director of marketing and communications for the NWPB, as saying, "This will be our first time [at a watermelon festival] on the West Coast, and we are happy to be a sponsor for the 52nd annual event, which will benefit the watermelon industry in California."

The Sunland-Tujunga Lions Club Watermelon Festival "became a destination event about five years ago," Schellenbach told The Produce News. "We were scouted and approached by the Economic Alliance of the San Fernando Valley and asked if we would become a Valley of the Stars official event, which we did."

Also, "we were written up in Westways every year" for several years "and we were their destination event about five years ago," she said.

Last year attendance dropped off, the decline being attributed to extreme heat, with temperatures upwards of 109 degrees during the festival, and also to inadequate parking and overcrowding the prior year, which likely discouraged some people from attending.

Holding the festival at the Rose Bowl will provide adequate space for a larger festival and a much larger attendance.

Schellenbach is not overly optimistic about how large the attendance may be in its first year at the Rose Bowl, but as for its potential, as the festival becomes better known, "the sky's the limit," she said.

Participation of the Watermelon Promotion Board and also the Western Watermelon Association will help give the event a boost, she said. "We think that will make a lot of difference. They didn't know we were here until last year."

Kidd told The Produce News that the Rose Bowl facilities will be "outstanding" for the event. "The people running it are really professional, and they've got room to let us really put on a big show with lots of space for vendors" and for the carnival area.

He said that five watermelon growers will be donating 60 bins of watermelons. "They are going to be cold." To cut that 50,000 pounds of watermelons, the watermelon board is bringing in a newly invented automatic watermelon cutter.

The board will have about a dozen people at the festival "to help man the booth and to help in the organization," he said.

In addition, volunteers from Lions Clubs throughout the Los Angeles area will be helping out, he said.

Kidd, himself, has been heavily involved in planning for the event, attending meetings of both Lions Club groups and the Rose Bowl committee.

In addition to the watermelon queens, one of the big celebrity attractions at the festival will be Celebrity Chef Joseph Poon, an accomplished and entertaining watermelon carver who has been a frequent guest on TV. He will give watermelon-carving demonstrations and also teach both youngsters and adults how to carve watermelons, Kidd said.

NWPB is also coordinating with a Los Angeles television station and with several radio stations to help give the festival some exposure since the proceeds for the event are all going to charitable causes, he said.

The watermelon board expects to have a long-term involvement with the event. "It is something we will build on every year to be bigger and better," Kidd said.

Cost of the event is $10 at the door, $8 in advance for adults and $4 for children.