In years past, the highlight of the festival was a beauty contest to elect the Howell Melon Queen.
The very first Melon Queen, a beautiful nurse, won a trip to Washington, D.C. where she met with President Dwight D. Eisenhower at the White House.
The news wires picked up the story of the beauty queen and the Howell melons, earning front-page stories in the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times, and "that's how the Howell melon got famous", according to Dr. Louis May, organizer of the first festival.
The 2012 venue will close Grand River Ave for two days to accommodate Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels performance.
'The first Howell melons were grown by August "Gus" Schmitt, a local farmer, who was given the original seeds by an itinerant hobo during the Great Depression.