Sunland-Tujunga Lions Watermelon Festival

Join the watermelon eating contests and the greased watermelon relay races — they are the best parts of the festival!
The fest has a small community feel and it’s lots of good fun!

Fun, inexpensive festival. You get to eat all the watermelon you want, there are watermelon carvings, carnival rides, food vendors and events going on throughout the day. Only thing I wish there would have been more of is more/​better food vendors. And more things involving watermelon foods. Parking was great though, and the location was awesome. It’s definitely worth going to.

I LOOOOVE WATERMELON!!!
Better yet… I Loooove FREE watermelon!
Fun and kid friendly with lots of rides, entertainment and games going on throughout the day! Did I mention I LOOOOVE WATERMELON!!!

Admission $ 10
FREE Watermelon slices continuously.
I agree with other reviews in terms of vastness of event. The event is really small; it is not a huge production. Very few booths and limited watermelon related activities.
It is great family fun though. From entrance to exit, I don’t think I spent more than an hour at this event.

Unlimited watermelon! It’s nice that they have a huge machine that keeps working and volunteers that pass them out. I was happy to find that the watermelon was sweet and yummy. Shall I also mention… seedless! Yay! I was sad to find out that there weren’t any cool booths or whatever. Basically like a small flea market type deal. Yes, they have some carnival rides and live music, but I wasn’t too impressed.
I thought it was cool that the Lions Club hosted this festival. It’s nice that at the rose bowl there is a lot of parking and parking is free! Awesome. I am probably not going to be attending next time, though.

Quick recap of the Watermelon Festival…
Super Hot Day! Watermelons were the perfect solution for such occasion!
$ 10 to enter… sort of steep but should be for a good cause…
Unlimited watermelon! Melon-​o-​matic of some sort cuts them into slices when you insert the entire watermelon in the contraption! Neat-​o!
Very limited booth availability… not much food there to enjoy… and not too cheap either…
Have a section for carnival rides… interesting!
Visited the Unilocal booth, did my mini watermelon toss for a Unilocal tote… where are the gloves, socks, mint tins, and all those other cool goodies? Just totes, stickers, and thin plastic passport holders… Wish I could of end up with some cool Unilocal swags…
Petting zoo? Some people were petting the iguanas but not sure if it’s a good idea in general… just 5 animals in attendance… more like a back yard barn to me…
Performance stage… very hot and way too far from the seated area! We can barely see anything… saw the hula dancing but that’s about it…
Did I mention that the watermelons were unlimited… now to get your money’s worth for your $ 10 entrance fee… you would have to ingest at least about 50 lbs of watermelons… I tried but failed miserably…
Watermelons win this round… maybe next time…
P. S. They need to get their system straight… got there just when the festival suppose to open, but due to technical difficulties for CC machines at the ticketing booth, coupled with long lines at the front gate… it created about an one hour delay in the hot sun… no bueno…

Watermelon festival?! How awesome does that sound. Well, when you get there you would expect there would be watermelons galore. Wrong.
My boyfriend, his sis & I decided to go after getting half off tickets from Groupon. We arrived around 5:30pm and boy was it still hot. Make sure you bring a hat and some shades. Not to mention tons of paper towels because juicy watermelon gets sticky :)
Free alyce watermelon all day, just get in line and grab as many pieces as you like. There’s a tent with Art Institute students carving watermelons and a handful of vendors selling the usual fair items: bracelets/​necklaces, hats, clothing, etc. A few rides for kids but nothing exciting. Some lemonade and ice cream stands. I expected more watermelon themed items. Some carnival games like tossing some balls into fish bowls and winning fish. Pretty fun and easy to win. The live performances were mediocre.
Overall, it was enjoyable and pleasant enough but I wish there were more fun and amusing rides/​games to play. An okay event for cheap price.

Ah! What can I say. Unilocal’s booth here is by far one of the best things about this so called Watermelon Festival.
I was volunteering as a member of Unilocal Street Team Friday evening — Day 1 of the Festival and thank gosh, I didn’t actually pay to get in here.
I don’t think it’s worth the $ 10 or even $ 5 with a discount.
You do get free slices of watermelon, but I thought it would be more like a strawberry festival — with everything geared toward watermelon. That is not the case.
There were some rides which I didn’t go on, although I would have liked to ride the pretty carousel and ride down the large multi colored plastic slide. Perhaps, the rides are a + for the kiddos. Think small carnival.
The henna booths didn’t do great work and I didn’t see much in the way of entertainment.
The food vendors weren’t great but my frozen slushee lemonade ($ 5) was good on a hot sun-​filled afternoon.
Thanks to all who came out to the Unilocal Check in event and played the mini watermelon toss game with Nitar L. and I.

This was the worst festival I have ever been to in my life. My church’s festival puts the Watermelon Festival to shame. You pay $ 10.00 to basically eat watermelon and look at sorry ass booths. Examples you ask? A psychic reader and people selling aluminum siding.
There are no watermelon themed anything! Just watermelon lemonade that tasted like Kool-​Aid. There was nothing to do. It was only a tiny section of the Rose Bowl entrance that was covered by the festival. Even the entertainment lacked. The lady who was dancing Flamenco got winded and could hardly introduce the next song. No one seemed interested. Then, you only get handed one piece of watermelon and need to go wait in line each time you want another piece. I would have been better off buying a whole watermelon at the store and eating it at home for like $ 3. The only cool booth was the Unilocal booth in a sea of cheap earring vendors and people pedling discounted hotel rooms. No thanks.

I came on a Sunday around 1pm. I expected a much bigger venue but I still enjoyed myself. If you don’t do the rides, it’s more kickback than excitement. I was perfectly fine just sitting in the shade gorging on slice after slice of free sweet cold watermelon. Didn’t have to worry about the seeds either!
However, there’s a handful of activities for kids. There was a Ronald McDonald show, watermelon seed spitting contest, sticker giveaways, and a couple of carnival games.
If you’re hungry or thirsty there was a beer and wine booth, BBQ vendors, Mexican food, and frozen lemonade. I really enjoyed the garlic fries.
A booth showcasing watermelon carvings was near the entrance. There’s also multiple vendors selling merchandise or promoting. The Unilocal booth was there giving away Unilocal gear as a prize if you win the ball toss. My daughter scored a Unilocal tote.
I totally bombed on the ball toss. It was pathetic. I still got a prize but in the back of my mind I knew I didn’t deserve it.
I like the simplicity of the festival and the sweet watermelon was very refreshing. For me it was worth the $ 10 and free parking. I will definitely come back again next year.

What a let down this was! Against my boyfriend’s better judgment, I dragged him with me to this festival because I love watermelon and I love festival so how bad could Watermelon + Festival be?! Boy was I wrong. :/​After paying way too much ($ 10 per), we walked in to a tiny section of Rosebowl where they set up poorly coordinated venue filled with vendors selling random stuffs (like farmers market), Psychic booth, hotel advertisement, and even casino games. -.-; I must say however, best booth or only booth that was worth it for me was the Unilocal booth where if you check in, you get to play a game to win their stuffs (I won a Unilocal tote bag! :) Other than that, anything sounding remotely fun were all at extra cost like carnival rides & games and a tour of rosebowl.
We were in and out in 40 minutes and will not be back again. Nope!

Go Maggie they said.
It’ll be fun they said.
I would like to take this time to apologize to my family. I’m sorry I made us go to this «festival». I thought it’d be a good idea to do something together… Yes dad. You could’ve bought 10 watermelons with the money you paid for the tickets… Yes dad… I’ll pay you back…
This festival was boring, over priced and a complete waste of time and money. You can walk through everything in about 10 minutes. Do yourself a favor. Buy a couple of watermelons. Put it in your backyard. Play some music and call it a «Watermelon Festival».

I was volunteering at Unilocal booth for the event. Our booth is the highlight I believe, with the mini watermelon toss game. And met great other elites, which were really fun experience.
All you can eat watermelon, which is really sweet and yummy. And there’re a couple vendors selling little goodies. I didn’t get too much time to hang around. But I do see there’s rides for kids and different food vendors. Also the stage is having performance for a whole day.
They have watermelon eating contest, which is fun. And also the sculptureing or carving of the watermelon, which is pretty amazing, I believe you can take them if you like.
If you get the tix from livingsocial, which is 5 bucks, I think it’ll be a good deal. Plus, free parking.

One star for the watermelon lemonade. One star for the free watermelon.
Minus one star for the $ 10 entrance per person for a festival in the heat where it’s hard to tell what the festival is about. For lunch we had tacos, garlic fries, teriyaki chicken, corn and a bratwurst. I was expecting more watermelon. There were a few stands with other fruit flavors but watermelon.
Had a snowcone. It was just crushed ice. Nothing on the mainstage. There was a watermelon eating contest that we stumbled upon in the middle of the grounds. No way to see anything.
There was some activity on the side with a guy who made watermelon designs and Miss Watermelon signing autographs. All this should be on the main stage… Or anything to show there’s some kind of program.
What a disappointment. :(

$ 10 entrance fee for AYCE watermelon (well, you can always go back and wait in line for more watermelon)? I ain’t complaining; however, the festival was a lot smaller than I expected. You WOULD think the festival would be huge because of the Rose Bowl, but you can pretty much check out all of vendors in 15 minutes.
The line for watermelon wheel of prizes was longggggg (you can to spin the wheel for each ticket that you have) — had to wait for 30 — 45 minutes just to get a spin.
Anything good? Free watermelon, incredible watermelon decorations, and free parking.
If you have extra $ 10 and 1 – 2 hour (s) to spare AND live within 15 minutes away (at max 30 minutes) from the Rose Bowl, hey feel to come here and pay a visit. Just don’t expect anything extraordinary.

Not very big. $ 10 per person for entry. Free parking! Free freshly cut watermelon! The food in there is overpriced, but that can be expected, I guess. If you’re not there to eat, there’s not much else to do there. You can get some watermelon and listen to the band play some music. There aren’t too many vendors and nobody was really riding the rides when I was there. There aren’t too many games to play either, but the prizes looked kind of cool. I bet the majority of the people are in and out in 1 – 2 hours. Checked out the Unilocal booth. Checked in to the location and got free Unilocal swag!

I was looking forward to the watermelon festival at the Rose Bowl. I arrived at 5:00 when they opened but unfortunately nobody told the vendors that was the start time. The free watermelon they give wasn’t up and ready until 5:30.
The vendors they have can be found at any swap meet so there isn’t anything great to buy. The food and drinks are overpriced. They had a group of kids singing (horribly off key and they only knew Taylor Swift songs) The only good thing about the festival was the guys carving watermelon sculptures.

Expensive waste of time! $ 10 bucks to get in for a few free slices of watermellon. Nothing entertaining about it. It felt like a money making tourist trap. Over priced venders and little to do with watermellon.
So much potential and so little thought. How about a little history of the watermellon, or a display of the largest or even something about the watermellon queen (did you know the very first watermellon queen was Marlyn Monroe). STAY HOME!
Nothing for kids, nothing to keep you interested, couldn’t wait to get out of there. Can you tell I was disappointed, and I work as an affiliate to the produce industry.

Our organization had the misfortune of exhibiting at this low-​class, tacky, poorly run event.
When we arrived to set up, no one from the Chamber of Commerce was there to tell us where we were supposed to be. Soon, we discovered that our booth assignment was at the very back of the event (close to the street)…right in front of the porta potties! (I suppose that was their idea of ‘traffic flow’.) Nonetheless, we soldiered on and made friends with our neighbors… because NO ONE came by the entire day. One nice person donated $ 5 (we usually take in at least $ 200 on a slow day at these types of events) but since we had to pay the Chamber for the privilege of participating, we lost money for the first (and only) time at any event.
Even the Watermelon Queen was ignored at her booth nearby.
Needless to say, we did not return the next day.
Avoid this ‘seedy’ festival.

This was the worst festival I think we have ever been to. We drove all the way from Riverside, CA to Glendale, CA and it was just a big fat waste of gas.
When we arrived, we were shocked to see how small the festival area was. The festival took place on all dirt grounds so it was great getting dirt blown in our eyes and getting our shoes all dirty. Not to mention, there were only like 2 other people walking around besides us.
We wanted to enter into the watermelon eating contest but could not find any info on how to enter. We were finally directed to go to a table where an elderly couple were sitting. We asked them for the info and they had no clue what we were talking about. Finally we found someone who said that the contest was going to start in an hour but we needed to sign up with a certain person who was not there yet. We waited about an hour and the person never showed up and we were not able to enter into the contest.
On a positive note, there was a man who made carvings out of watermelon and they were absolutely amazing! We had a few pieces of watermelon and they were nice and refreshing.