One-of-a-kind pea festival draws long-distance fans, internet interest
EMERSON, Ark.— With the arrival of the PurpleHull Pea Festival & World Championship Rotary Tiller Race, it’s tiller time Saturday in this small Southwest Arkansas town south of Magnolia.
The unique, annual festival celebrates a beloved local legume delicacy and competitors who race their tillers to glory along the corridors of dirt. Saturday is the main day, but things kick off tonight with the first ever Cranking of the Tillers ceremony and a fireworks show.
On Saturday, highlights include the Million Tiller Parade at 1 p.m., the Great PurpleHull Peas & Cornbread Cook Off starting at 9 a.m. and the World Cup PurpleHull Pea Shelling Competition at 11:15 a.m.
Food vendors, a farmer’s market, flea market and kid’s activities all run through the day. A Pup-Pea Dog Show starts at 9 a.m. The Silver Belles Dancers will participate and kids can compete in the Kids Potato Pickup.
Then there’s the fierce competition itself, the World Championship Rotary Tiller Race. It gets rolling at 2:30 p.m. This year’s festival features a first: a competitor from Wisconsin. Bill Dailey, the “pea-r guy” for the festival, is excited about this development.
“He takes the prize for the most distance traveled,” Dailey said about Robert Ruppel of Cumberland,
Wis., an engineer who works with tillers and other outdoor products. He’s even bringing family to compete in other race divisions, says the spokesman.
The festival has enjoyed visitors from as far away as Australia and England, but this is the farthest a racer has traveled with their tiller, although one racer from Holland used a local tiller back in 1995. According to Dailey’s calculation, Ruppel will travel more than 1,000 miles to compete.
Dailey anticipates a strong showing of tillers this year. “He’s just the icing on the cake,” he said. Last year’s champ, Trevor Ridling, is out due to an injury, however.
In other tiller race developments, a video of last year’s race has gone viral with nearly 3 million views. The video shows a a former tiller race champion’s dramatic tiller spill, as caught by a freelance Shreveport videographer. New York City producers put it online and from there the tiller dramatics have been witnessed by scores of people online.
“I was skeptical of the numbers,” Dailey admits. But he had a friend with the Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism check it out and say it appears to be legitimate.
One new event this year is a cookoff that provides a plate of good eats in the evening starting at 6 p.m.
“We have a young man who volunteered to do what he calls the Bad Boys Riblet Cook Off, which of course are rib tips,” Dailey said. Then there are the lunchtime PurpleHull Pea Meals served in the cafetorium from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
“A lot of people come just for that,” Dailey said.
The 2017 Grand Pea Marshal of the Million Tiller Parade is Nicole Madden, KSLA Channel 12 meteorologist. And Dailey is proud of both the antique tractor and car shows held at the festival.
The festival closes with an 8 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. street dance with Southern Harmony performing live music, ranging from Lynyrd Skynyrd to Beatles tunes.
(More info: PurpleHull.com.)