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Old-fashioned rice threshing, 1980 Rice Festival
Old-fashioned rice threshing, 1980 Rice Festival

Arkansas Rice Festival

This festival is held annually the second weekend in October in Weiner, Arkansas, in conjunction with National Rice Promotion Month and the end of the rice harvest in the state. Volunteers cater rice dishes from appetizers to full course meals, and a new queen is crowned to reign over the activities. She also attends various other activities throughout her one-year reign. Activities for the 1999 Festival included a rice tasting, a parade, a red beans and rice dinner, an auction, "rice thrashing," rock-wall climbing, a scavenger hunt, a regional duck-calling contest, entertainment on two stages, arts and crafts and food vendors. Arkansas is the number one rice producing state in the U.S.; over half of the nation's rice is grown here. Project is documented with Festival programs from various years; programs from a local church's "Harvest Service"; newspaper articles; rice recipes; copies of a Weiner newsletter, "The Quill"; letters from the Rice Festival archives; flyers; a color snapshot; and a bumper sticker.

Originally submitted by: Marion Berry, Representative (1st District).



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The Local Legacies project provides a "snapshot" of American Culture as it was expressed in spring of 2000. Consequently, it is not being updated with new or revised information with the exception of "Related Website" links.

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