The region around Dothan is celebrating what’s considered to be its primary cash crop. The National Peanut Festival is underway until Nov. 13. The celebration features games, a petting zoo, live music and plenty of fair food. The cost for admission is $10.
Phillip Tidwell is the vice president of the National Peanut Festival. He says Dothan has celebrated the festival for decades and that the event has a positive economic impact on the area.
"We celebrate the peanut farmers around the area and it has been that way for 50 plus years probably," Tidwell said. "We celebrate it every year, we appreciate the agriculture business in this area."
He says there’s something for everyone at the festival.
"There is just a lot of activities and on the last Saturday we have a demolition derby with two shows one starting at 2 and one starting at 7 which is very popular in our arena and just a lot of festivities all throughout the week," Pidwell said. "It is a lot of fun we draw about 100 to 200 hundred thousand people during the week."
An estimated half of the peanuts grown in the United States are produced within a 100-mile radius around Dothan.