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What is worth sitting in traffic for five and a half hours on a Saturday afternoon? If you ask my 8-year-old son, it’s the Suffolk Peanut Fest. That is exactly what we did this last Saturday, along with thousands of others from Suffolk and the surrounding areas.

Theresa Earles, publicity coordinator for the event and the city’s tourism development manager, estimated that at least 100,000 people attended the four-day event, including about 40,000 just on Saturday.

40,000 people, that is a lot of funnel cakes and fries. My son is learning about “Never giving up” in his Bible study group. So when I asked for the 50th time, “hey bud, how about we just turn around and go someplace else,” his response was “no way, we can’t give up.”

We spent the time singing to the radio, watching the hot air balloons go up and the sky divers come down. We may have missed the famous peanut butter sculpting contest. We even missed the loud crashing of the demolition derby. But in the end we made it to the festival. My son got his festival food and ran through the straw maze. He was even given a few tickets to go running through the fun house.

So, if you ask my son, he would say the five and half hours was well worth it to enjoy the Peanut Fest and I along with over 40,000 others would have to agree.

 

Jen Jaqua is the Creative Director for The Suffolk News-Herald. You can contact her at jen.jaqua@suffolknewsherald.com.