TONTITOWN (KFSM) -- A time-honored tradition has returned to one local community, as the Tontitown Grape Festival begins its 118th year on Tuesday (Aug. 9).
The festival begins with carnival armband night on Tuesday, starting at 5 p.m. Aside from rides and music there will also be a grape stomp at 7 p.m.
There will be a spaghetti dinner available from Thursday (Aug. 11) through Saturday (Aug. 13). Plates cost $12 for adults and $6 for children. Volunteers have been making the spaghetti for weeks before the festival, mixing eggs and flour and rolling them into flat sheets that are hung up on a rack to dry.
Tontitown residents have celebrated the grape harvest with this festival since 1898.
"It brings back so many memories since I started working here," said Taylor Martin, who has been volunteering at the festival for 15 years. "My grandparents would come to the grape festival and I would be like washing trays in the back, and as I've grown up, pouring coffee, pouring tea. And then making coffee, making tea, and as you grow older you can sort of move up the ranks."