Editor's Note: UPDATE - Due to the coronavirus, the event date has been changed from April 18 to June 13.
Spring is rolling in, bluebonnets are beginning to bloom, and festival season is right around the corner in the Brazos Valley, which means it’s time for the annual Burton Cotton Gin Festival celebrating the 1914 Burton Farmers Gin, the oldest operating cotton gin in America.
The 31st annual Burton Cotton Gin Festival is on Saturday, June 13, from 10am to 6pm, on the grounds of the Texas Cotton Gin Museum. The festival will begin with a parade, including the 16th annual Children’s Bicycle Parade. The ever-popular tractor pull starts at 1pm with a kiddie tractor pull at 4pm. Experience history first-hand with folk-life demonstrations such as blacksmithing, quilting, and spinning.
There will also be live gin demonstrations; various food options from barbeque to chicken and waffles; crafts and contests for people to participate in; and various educational opportunities for children and adults alike.
“[The Burton Cotton Gin Festival] is amazing because you can see everything working in the gin the same way that it did for over half a century,” Texas Cotton Gin Museum Director Steph Jarvis says. “We will be doing guided tours of the gin from noon to 3pm, and then we will be ginning some bales for people to see.”
The Cotton Gin Festival is the biggest event held at the Texas Cotton Gin Museum, celebrating
and preserving the history of the 150-year-old cotton gin and raising the funds in order to keep this piece of agricultural history in the Brazos Valley, according to Jarvis.
“The Burton Cotton Gin Festival is the biggest event that we have at the museum,” Jarvis says. “Part of the festival, of course, is raising the money to keep the museum here, but a bigger part of it is just celebrating the rich history of the gin.”
While the festival originally began to fund a museum and preserve the cotton gin, it has grown to include demonstrations and information on all facets of agriculture found in the Brazos Valley. From tractor pulling to the history of farming in the area, there is so much more to learn about and experience than there was when the festival first began, says Jarvis.
“There’s [an area] for antique tractors and engines where they will run them for people to see and hear as well as contests for pie-eating, bubblegum-blowing, and seed-pulling,” Jarvis says. “We have ladies who show hand quilting and there’s a petting zoo for the kiddos, which adds to the farm experience.”
For the children, the festival will i
nclude an area called “Farmer for a Day,” where children can go to different groups who will teach them about farming and animals and have hands-on crafts for them to do, Jarvis says.
“This year, there is someone who will be showing bee-keeping,” Jarvis says. “One year, the kiddos made pinecone bird feeders, so we definitely have things for them to be hands-on with and to interact with.”
For more information on the Burton Cotton Gin Festival, visit www.texascottonginmuseum.org, email director@texascottonginmuseum.org, or call (979) 289-3378.
