33rd Annual Tomato Festival Kicks-Off In Ripley Today

The 33rd Ripley Tennessee Tomato Festival began today and will run through Saturday, July 15. The festival was founded in 1984 to honor local tomato farms from the surrounding area. The Chamber of Commerce honors top tomato growers during the opening ceremonies all the way through the end of the festival. 
The event draws all type of vendors from neighboring towns and some people travel to the tune of 100 miles.
“The event gets bigger each year and these Ripley folks are family,” said Police Chief, Donnell Baltimore.
Vendors range from food, arts and crafts, a petting zoo, religious organizations and public services. This year, a mini carnival has been added to the mix. Tickets were on sale Friday for the tomato tasting.
Most people shop for smaller items like jewelry and they love the fair food. Barbecue is a staple, and the funnel cakes are the festival’s specialty. Lucious Miller, had a lemonade stand that offered a variety of flavors. Miller was concerned that rain was in the forecast, he thought it might put a damper on the crowd. Miller mentioned that he and his family has been coming out for years. 
The stage had been set up for live music later in the evening held in the amphitheater of Ripley’s downtown square. Tomato-centric events would carry on throughout the day including a tomato eating contest, tomato tasting contest, baby crawling contest, and the ever popular Tomato Festival Royalty contest, which is loosely akin to a beauty pageant.  Locals say this event is always a hit. There is even ice cream, made from tomatoes of course. The festival offers rides for children to enjoy. Ripley sets the mood each year for this to be a family filled festival.
Tomatoes are much more to this community than just the focus of their festival, they ship the tomatoes all over Tennessee. Ripley tomatoes are sold in stores all over the Tri-State area.
An organization called United Way of the Mid South was looking for opportunities to serve the surroundings Tri-State area. The organization uses this event as a recruiting opportunity to get people to join the efforts their team.
“It’s a day of service for us. We reach out to the communities that are a part of our footprint,” United Way Manager, Sandra Jackson said. She also said that weather cooperated during their time there.

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Kristin Jackson is a student at the Meek School of Journalism. She can be reached at kljacks2@go.olemiss.edu.