The Peanut Butter Festival in Brundidge got some unexpected publicity when OnlyInYourState.com. listed the city’s annual harvest and heritage celebration as one of Alabama’s “don’t miss” festivals in the coming months.

The Peanut Butter Festival will celebrate a quarter century of paying honor to the popular foodstuff that has played such an important part in the history and lore of the Brundidge community on the last Saturday in October.

Lawrence Bowden, president of the sponsoring Brundidge Historical Society, said being recognized statewide as a top festival is a great honor and greatly appreciated.

“A lot of people have worked really hard over the years to make the festival a success and to bring recognition to the fact that Brundidge had one of the earliest commercial peanut butter mills in the Southeast,” Bowden said. “In 1928, the Johnston Peanut Butter Mill began making peanut butter for commercial use and, a year or sol later, the Johnson brothers, Grady and Oscar, opened the Louis-Anne Peanut Butter Mill on the south side of town. Peanut butter was made commercially in Brundidge until the late 1950s.”

Although, peanut butter is no longer made in Brundidge, peanuts continue to have an economic impact on the area. The Peanut Butter Festival pays tribute to the town’s proud heritage in the peanut butter industry, Bowden said.

The Peanut Butter Festival is a small, down-home festival that can’t begin to rival the BayFest Music Festival in Mobile October 2-4.

“We won’t attract 200,000 people but we can promise a full day of fun and, as we like to say, it will be a “free for all.”

Bowden said it’s an honor for the Peanut Butter Festival to be recognized along with the National Peanut Festival in Dothan in November, the National Shrimp Festival in Gulf Shores also in October and the other festivals highlighted on OnlyInYourState.com.

“Alabama has such a variety of festival throughout the year,” he said. “There’s one almost every weekend right in our backyard and we should take advantage of these opportunities.”

The Alabama Jubilee Hot Air Balloon Class will be in Decatur Memorial Day weekend. Just right down the road, Georgiana will host the Hank Williams Festival June 5 and 6.

The Magic City Brewfest will be held in Birmingham June 5 and 6 as will the 9-1-1 Festival in Haleyville.

The Helen Keller Festival will pay tribute to “American’s First Lady of Courage” June 23-28 in Tuscumbia and Florence will pay tribute to W.C. Handy with a festival in his honor July 17-26.

And, there’s nothing sweeter than the Sweet Tater Festival in Cullman, September 6 and 7.