Georgia Peach Festival

From Georgia Peach Festival Website:

The Georgia Peach Festival was created in 1986 to honor peach growers for their contribution to our state's economy and to the food industry nationwide. It also is a great opportunity to showcase all the good things Byron and Fort Valley have to offer. The Peach Festival holds the distinction of being the only state-sanctioned food festival.

Between 1922-26, Fort Valley greeted the first peach blossoms in annual festivals of dance, song, elaborate pageants and delicious barbecue. These elaborate festivals were said to rival Mardi Gras and California's Rose Festiva and the events attracted the attention of National Geographic, the New York Times and Hollywood movie studios.Soon thousands from all over the world would make their way to Fort Valley each March. It has been reported that as many as 40,000 people descended on the town during the festival, which was ended in 1926 because it was too successful.

Sixty years later, in 1986, Fort Valley revived the historic festival, moved it from blooming season to harvest season and renamed it the Georgia Peach Festival. It was officially incorporated in 1988 as the Georgia Peach Festival, Inc., and was once directed by the Chamber of Commerce. Today a volunteer board plans, organizes and executes the complex job of putting on the festival.

The idea of a Peach Festival was conceived by Harold Peavy to promote Peach County and the peach industry that has contributed so much to the livelihood of the state of Georgia. Georgia ranks third in the nation in the annual production of peaches, with more than 15,000 acres of peach trees yielding more than 1.7 million bushels of peaches annually. More than half of that harvest is cultivated in Peach County alone.