Estimated 20,000 show up to celebrate Idaho potatoes

By Sean Ellis

Idaho Farm Bureau Federation

MERIDIAN - Thousands of people flowed into Kleiner Memorial Park Sept. 20-22 to celebrate Idaho's famous potato.

Potato Days, held across from The Village in Meridian, is meant to provide city folk a chance to participate in a spudtacular observance of the humble spud, said event organizer Thomas Watson.

"I think Idaho deserves a huge celebration of the largest commodity in the state and it should be done in really big form," he said.

The Potato Days festival, in its second year, drew an estimated 20,000 people over a three-day span.

Shelley Spud Days in Eastern Idaho draws an estimated 10,000-15,000 people each year to the epicenter of potato production in the United States.

That event, which was held Sept. 21 this year, takes place in a rural area, and Potato Days organizers wanted to give people in Idaho's largest population center the chance to celebrate the spud also.

"For us, it's one massive potato party and it's something that needed to be in the Boise-Meridian area," said Watson, director of Idaho Business Alliance, which organizes Potato Days.

He said organizers initially set about searching for a potato festival in the area that they could join and were shocked to discover there wasn't one.

Once they realized that, Watson said, "it took us less than 30 seconds to say, we're putting on a potato festival. We immediately went into brainstorming mode. It was really something that was needed for this community."

Potato Days is three days of free family fun, all centered around the potato theme.

It included dozens of potato-themed games such as potato sack races, potato limbo, potato darts and potato trick shots. An estimated 15,000 free toys were awarded for playing the games.

The celebration included a potato sidewalk chalk art contest by dozens of local artists, a French-fry competition, live bands, carnival games, 200 vendors, a bubble garden and seven bouncy houses.

The Big Idaho Potato Truck, which hauls a gigantic potato around the nation, was parked at the event and a constant stream of people had their pictures taken in front of it.

There were dozens of food trucks and each one had to have at least one potato-themed item on its menu.

The event is free and is designed to be family friendly.

"We're celebrating the potato and we're doing it an old-fashioned, fun way that's free," Watson said.

He said the Idaho Potato Commission stepped up in a big way to support the event and provided many of the free prizes that were given away.

IPC President and CEO Jamay Higham said it was nice to see residents of the Treasure Valley celebrating the potato.

"I love to see people on this side of the state celebrating our status as the potato state," he said.

Higham said the commission wants to spend some of its promotional money right here in Idaho because it's helping to create "thousands and thousands of Idaho potato ambassadors."

The event is also sponsored by Idaho Farm Bureau Federation, Idaho's largest general farm organization.

"For me personally as a potato grower, it's very uplifting to see thousands of city folk showing pride in and celebrating the Idaho potato," said IFBF President Bryan Searle, who farms in Shelley. "I hope this event continues to grow and succeed and the thousands upon thousands of people who attended it this year is a good sign that it will."

Throngs of people were constantly flowing into the 58-acre park from every direction and Watson said it was difficult to get a hard crowd count.

"When you have a free event and people are pouring in from everywhere, it's hard to get an official count," he said.

But if organizers' 20,000 estimate is close, that means Potato Days has become Idaho's largest spud celebration in its second year.

Organizers loosely talk about hitting the 50,000 mark but Watson said the event is about a lot more than simply crowd turnout.

"Our intention is not to break records with attendance," he said. "It's more, can we build an annual tradition that's free family fun that kids and families look forward to, centered around the great commodity that we have with the potato?"

For 2025, Potato Days organizers are planning a major drone show and are also looking to set the world record for most mashed potatoes ever made in one serving.

"We're going to keep trying to push boundaries and see how much fun we can have with the potato," Watson said.

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