Linda Stevens didn’t intend to stay at Suffolk Festivals, Inc., for 22 years.

She initially started volunteering with the organization that puts on the Suffolk Peanut Festival after nine years of staying at home with her daughter.

“I really wasn’t looking for a job,” she said. “I came in as a volunteer.”

She then took a part-time, seasonal position to help out in the months leading up to the festival. Then, another person who was supposed to move into the position decided she didn’t want it.

“So, I stayed for a little while,” Stevens joked.

After being at the head of the festival organization for more than half of its 34 years, she will retire at the end of June, shortly after turning 62. But she says she’ll miss the job, so much so that she still plans on attending this fall’s festivities.

“It’s been awesome,” said Stevens, who plans on full retirement. “It’s been a great ride.”

Working at Suffolk Festivals, Inc., is a unique arrangement. It’s one of the few jobs in the world that works all year toward one four-day event.

“You’re building to a climax,” Stevens said. “Your momentum begins in January, but it’s very slow. But August, you’re going 80 percent. In September, you’re going 100 percent.”

And when the Peanut Fest comes in early October, Stevens said, it’s all about work for several weeks beforehand.

“Then, Monday morning, it’s quiet,” Stevens said. “You want peace and quiet.”

Stevens said the thing she’ll miss most about her job is the people.

“You just can’t beat the attitudes of the people here,” she said. “I have seen them do some pretty heavy-duty stuff to make this place a good place to be.”

Stevens admits that at first, she couldn’t understand why the hundreds of volunteers who make the festival happen would do what they do.
“I couldn’t understand why so many people worked so hard for a T-shirt and a parking pass,” she said. “So many of them give up vacation time.”

But Stevens said she soon came to understand that the volunteers do it because everyone is like a big family. Likewise, many businesses spend money to be at the event because their customers are there, and many nonprofit organizations work the event in exchange for a percentage of the receipts from the area they worked, such as parking or beverage sales.

And Stevens added she’ll also miss calling on the event’s sponsors year after year.

“You just form friendships,” she said. “I feel like these people are really my friends.”

Stevens said it takes a lot of time in late summer and fall to run the festival.

“There have been many years I spent more time here than I did at home,” Stevens said. “I have a husband and a daughter that certainly suffered.”

Upon Stevens’ retirement, Lisa Key, who has worked with Suffolk Festivals since 1997, will take over. Stevens said she might be talked into a part-time position with the organization after a couple of years. But first, she wants to just enjoy this year’s festival as a regular attendee.

“I need to just step away from it and just enjoy it,” she said.