The Dublin Peanut Festival will be held Sept. 20 and in making preparations, the group held an all-you-can-eat fish fry at Lu Mil Vineyard. Madison Wilkins, Dublin’s Peanut Festival Queen was helping out and eating her share of the delicious fish and hot dogs.
Dublin Mayor Horace Wyatt is taking a break from cooking and overseeing the cooking operations at Lu Mil for the Dublin Peanut Fest all-you-can-eat fish fry.
The all-you-could-eat fish fry fundraiser for the Dublin Peanut Festival was successful because of all the hard work and preparation of the volunteers who set up, cooked, cleaned up and greeted the hundreds of people that attended.
Another Wyatt was on the job at the all-you-can-eat fish fry in Dublin, held at Lu Mil Vineyard & Winery. Mayor Horace Wyatt had no trouble recruiting his son, Michael to cook the fish.
DUBLIN – It’s a successful fry when you see Dublin Mayor Horace Wyatt cooking fish!
The Dublin Peanut Festival held its annual all-you-can-eat Fish Fry on Saturday, March 1st, from 11:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at the Lu Mil Vineyard general store and hundreds participated and enjoyed the sweet potato fries, the Whiting fish and the “slaw.”
Along with Dublin’s Mayor Wyatt, there were cooks helping out from the Shriners.
According to one of the organizers of the event, Richard Sibbett, this is the big fundraiser of the year to give back to the community and tickets were sold for $25.
“All proceeds will go to the Dublin Peanut Festival,” Sibbett said. “I’d like to give a big shout out to Pier 41 who donated all the slaw. The fish came from Alberts Fish Market on King Street. The biggest challenge this year is my wife being sick, so I had to handle everything. My wife (Vicki Sibbett) is the organizer and I am just the chairman.”
Few people know, but Vicki Sibbett was the brain-thrust behind the welded peanut.
“That was a couple years in the making on the peanut,” he said. “It was her idea and she got it from the blueberry in Bergaw and she said, ‘We need a peanut,’” he said. “We talked to Dr. Lee (President of Bladen Community College), and she was on board and it went from there. I was coming home one day and saw a lady taking pictures of it and it was the representative from the North Carolina State Board of Peanuts. I spoke to Dan Warden over in Clarkton the other day and he told me how good it looked – and he’s on the state board also.”
When asked what they would do to top last year’s “iconic welded peanut” which not stands in the lot to the east of the Dublin Town Hall, Sibbett said that he didn’t know. What he did know was that the turnout was in the hundreds and people were having a great time and the weather was spectacular after the last three years of adverse weather.
The event was hosted by Lu Mil and Sibbett said Ron Taylor and Denise Bridgers helped them out with anything they asked for and were willing to anything they could for the festival.
Dublin Peanut Queen, Madison Wilkins was also onsite to help out with the little things and to greet the people.
“I think it went very well,” Wilkins said. “I am here helping help out my community and my fellow queens.
The annual peanut fest that brings thousands of people to a town with a population of just over 250 people is coming quickly.
On Sept. 20, the tiny town of Dublin will unveil their 33rd annual Dublin Peanut Festival. Last year the news revolved around a flurry of activity with the unveiling of a peanut sculpture adjacent to the Dublin Town Hall.
Wyatt was also on hand for the unveiling and was excited at all the commotion around town in preparation for the festival.
“I am just honored that the peanut festival saw the necessity to do something other than just having meetings and having a festival,” Wyatt said. “They have been exploring all kinds of ideas and I think it’s great for the community.”
It all began 32 years ago when there was an educational need in the community. This festival was born out of a great need and came to fruition due to a lot of hard-working people who didn’t have a “give-up” mentality when it came to things for the local kids.
Along with the food vendors, the star of the show for the day will be peanuts. All kinds of peanuts and apropos for the great Dublin Peanut Festival 2025.
For more information about the Dublin Peanut Festival, please visit: https://www.dublinpeanutfestival.com/