A concession was made to COVID-19 and the fruit of honor had to be hauled in from Belle Glade but Saturday’s Newberry Watermelon Festival was a taste of freedom for a crowd seeking normalcy. The festival was the only annual event held in Alachua County last year as the coronavirus took hold and may yet be the only one this year as these things take planning. This was the 76th straight year of the event. “We’re not doing the seed spitting contest because I don’t think it’s prudent yet to do that even though we don’t have the mask mandate anymore,” festival President Kathryn Thomas said. “We have about 75 vendors. We had the parade, the Watermelon Queen, a dog pageant, a hog-calling contest, eating contests, a watermelon roll — we’ve got a lot.”