Our Town Brownfield: Preparations already underway for 76th Annual Harvest Festival

LUBBOCK, Texas (KJTV) - It’s an annual tradition that brings people together from all over Terry County, and beyond for three days in the Fall, the Terry County Harvest Festival. The event began in 1947 as a way for farmers to celebrate a long-awaited successful harvest.

“This started in 1947. The local farmers had had a couple of really bad years, no crops, and then in 1947 they were having a very plentiful crop, and so they decided they were going to close the shops down, they were just going to celebrate,” said Lorena Valencia, executive director with the Brownfield Chamber of Commerce.

When Glenna Curtis was crowned as the first-ever Harvest Festival Queen in ‘47, the honor came with some pretty nifty benefits.

She won the Harvest Festival Queen. She got to go on a trip to New York and met some famous people, but it was a big deal!,” Valencia said.

The events are set to begin Thursday, Oct. 5, and will end Saturday, Oct. 7. Festivities include a downtown parade, various food vendors, and a new location for the opening events.

“There is something special about our pageant and talent show,” Valencia says, “It’s always been celebrated at the middle school auditorium, and it’s currently being torn down right now so we’re going to celebrate this at the new high school gym.”

Competition for the coveted crown is already underway. This year’s candidates were treated to a tour of all of Brownfield’s historic spots, along with many opportunties for pictures.

“We’re looking forward to it, a new phase in our Harvest Festival Pageant Talent Show. We have six candidates, and they’re all running, competing for the crown, and so that’s exciting too,” Valencia says. “It’s exciting every year to have a new candidate win and be crowned as the Queen.”

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