Members of the Western Watermelon Association, which include growers from California and several other Western states, donated nearly 30 tons of ice-cold watermelons last year to attendees at a Los Angeles-area watermelon festival, which was held at the Rose Bowl for the first time in the festival's 52-year history.

For 2014, the festival, which had outgrown its long-time community park venue in the L.A. foothill community of Sunland-Tujunga, will be held July 19-20, during National Watermelon Month, at the more capacious Santa Anita Park equestrian race track in Arcadia.Mark Arney, executive director of the National Watermelon Promotion Board Orlando Florida, and Kenton Kidd, Western United States representative for the board.

Attendees at the 53rd Sunland-Tujunga Lions Club Watermelon Festival will again be treated to all of the free ice-cold watermelon they can eat. With a larger attendance expected this year, WWA growers expect to donate 50 tons of watermelons to the festival, with proceeds from event admissions sales ($10 at the gate for adults) going to various local charities such as a children's hospital.

In addition to the involvement of WWA in the festival, which is hosted by area Lions Clubs, The National Watermelon Promotion Board in Orlando, FL, is a major sponsor of the event.

According to Kenton Kidd, Western U.S. representative for NWPB, the board will be helping with the festival in multiple ways, ranging from staging numerous promotional activities to hosting a watermelon carving exhibition and demonstration featuring Joseph Poon, celebrity chef and master watermelon carver, from Philadelphia.

Also making an appearance at the festival will be the reigning National Watermelon Queen, 23-year-old Brandi Harrison of Newberry, FL, along with "possibly one or two of the other regional queens to help with the festivities," said Kidd.

As part of the pre-event publicity, the National Watermelon Queen will also make an appearance at Santa Anita Park on June 21, during the racing season, where she will be presenting the trophy to the winner of the final race of the day and will have an opportunity to tell race attendees about the coming watermelon festival, he said.

Continuing its long tradition, the festival will also have its own queen, who will be crowned during the festival.

This year's festival attendees will be treated not only to free watermelon but to free carnival rides and free pony rides, Kidd said. There will also be many games in which attendees can participate and win prizes. In addition, there will be around 100 vendor booths.

The Santa Anita Park facility has plenty of space to accommodate the carnival, the vendors and the other activities as well as ample room for parking, Kidd said.

For the watermelon carving, "we are going to have a tent that is 100 feet long," he said. It will showcase Chef Poon's watermelon carvings, and in addition, Poon will teach people how to carve watermelon.

It is a return engagement for Poon, who was also at the 2013 festival. According to a festival press release, "His appearances last year were a huge hit with festival goers in the Watermelon Pavilion. His upbeat personality, along with his easy carving techniques for the everyday cook, won the hearts of the crowd. His more elaborate carvings of swans, dragons and fun creatures were additionally lauded."

There will be other carving demonstrations as well under the big tent. Students from a culinary school from Pasadena will participate, giving demonstrations of how to carve not only watermelons but other produce items such as pumpkins.

At the recent annual convention of the Western Watermelon Association at the New York New York Hotel in Las Vegas, Mark Arney, executive director of NWPB, and Kidd announced the new venue for the 2014 festival and discussed the board's participation in the event.

"Mark and I showed a slide presentation of last year's big Rose Bowl festival," Kidd told The Produce News. "Then I spoke about the details of last year's festival and what is coming up for this year."

Santa Anita has "a really good facility" with plenty of parking and plenty of space for the carnival that will be part of this year's festival," he said.