National Peanut Festival opens in southeast Alabama

DOTHAN, Ala. – An event that bills itself as the world’s largest celebration of the peanut is under way in Alabama.

The National Peanut Festival opened Friday in Dothan and continues through next Saturday with rides, exhibits, music and agricultural competitions.

Now in its 76th year, the festival began in 1938 as a three-day event with an appearance by agricultural scientist George Washington Carver of Tuskegee. It has been held each year since except during the 1940s, when organizers took a break for World War II.

The festival now lasts 10 days and draws an estimated 200,000 people annually. The festival site isn’t hard to find if you make it to Dothan: a 24-foot-tall peanut marks the entrance.