Celebrating a Summer Favorite

Tomatoes take center stage at Jacksonville festival

By Andrea Agardy

In Jacksonville, they take their tomatoes seriously. How seriously? In 2010, the city set the world record for making the world’s biggest bowl of salsa — it weighed in at 2,672 pounds. Jacksonville’s streets are dotted with hundreds of colorfully decorated 665- pound cement tomatoes, its high school football stadium is named the Tomato Bowl, and every year the Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce hosts Tomato Fest.

A Weeklong Celebration

The festival, set for Sept. 19, caps off a week of activities, says Peggy Renfro, chamber president. Before the main event, the community celebrates its showstopper crop with a variety of happenings, including a golf scramble, a farm-to-table dinner and more.

“It’s a town full of fun,” Renfro says. “If you’ve never been to Jacksonville, this would be the time to come and visit, because the week is packed full of activities.”

One particularly popular pre-festival event is a dodgeball tournament that brings competitors from all across the community together for an opportunity to win bragging rights and a donation to the charity of the winning team’s choice.

“It’s a lot of fun when you see the mayor out there throwing the ball, and then, you’ve got a kid from Dairy Queen that’s got such a strong arm that you don’t want to get hit by the ball,” Renfro says.

The festival, now in its 36th year, draws a crowd of 10,000 to downtown Jacksonville.

“It’s amazing the people who will drive to get a Jacksonville tomato,” she says. “Our soil has this acid. It’s red dirt, and it just produces a very tasty tomato.”

The Main Event

At 8 a.m. Saturday, the fun kicks into high gear. In addition to browsing the offerings of dozens of vendors, festivalgoers can try their luck in competitions.

“We have all kinds of crazy stuff that happens,” Renfro says.

The tomato-peeling contest always draws a crowd.

“People are waiting in line to be the champion of the tomato-peeling contest. They’re fresh Jacksonville tomatoes you have to peel with your teeth,” she says. “We also have a tomato eating contest, and we have a kids’ version of it.”

Cash prizes are up for grabs in the salsa, talent and homegrown tomato contests. The festival wraps up with a huge street dance in the Chili’s parking lot.

“It’s very family-fun oriented, and Chili’s always looks forward to putting that on,” Renfro says. “It works out really, really well.”

Keeping Everyone Connected

A strong and reliable broadband connection, like the service provided by Eastex Telephone Cooperative, is vital to keeping festival fans informed — especially in light of the COVID-19 crisis, which prompted Tomato Fest organizers to postpone the event from its traditional date, the second weekend in June, until September.

“It helps us in so many different ways, just for the simple fact that we can put all our entry forms on the website,” Renfro says. “It’s so easy for people to have that access. It also helps with promotion — people take photos and share them, and that’s just additional exposure.”

For more information and a complete schedule of events, visit the Jacksonville Tomato Fest website.