MEDGYESEGYHAZA, Sunday 8 August 2010 (AFP) - A father and son were crowned kings of the watermelon at a festival dedicated to the fruit in a small Hungarian town Sunday.

Tens of thousands of people descended on the town of Medgyesegyhaza near the Romanian border for a three-day watermelon festival featuring concerts, contests and markets.

The highlight of the event is a competition to crown the "Watermelon Knight", in which contestants compete at eating, juggling, packing and guessing the weight of watermelons.

This year's winner was Jozsef Kraller, whose son also won the junior contest.

"I am absolutely thrilled, I never expected to win," Kraller told AFP.

Nearly 25,000 people attended the three-day festival, which started in 1995, with visitors coming from as far as Australia and Canada, organisers said.

"I liked the idea of creating an event to celebrate the existence of a fruit, in our case the watermelon, which the entire community relies on," said long-time mayor Bela Nagy.