A Tomato, a Bloody Mary, and Four Hours on the Murphy Riverwalk

By Jon Tharp, Broker  ·  July 29, 2026

Six restaurants hauled vodka, house-made mixes and loaded garnish trays down to the Murphy Riverwalk last August to fight over a Bloody Mary trophy, and a brewery from Hayesville walked off with it. That competition comes back Saturday, Aug. 1, when the fourth annual TomatoFEST takes over the Riverwalk behind the historic L&N Depot in downtown Murphy from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Admission is free. The Bloody Mary tasting is the one thing you pay for up front, at $10 a ticket, and you have to be 21 with an ID in hand.

Everything else is open to anyone who shows up. Food trucks, farm tables, a kids tent, live music by the water, and a farmers market running in the same space at the same time. If you have been meaning to spend a Saturday morning in Murphy and have not gotten around to it, this is the one to pick.

What Actually Happens on the Riverwalk

The setup is simple and it works. The Cherokee Clay Food Alliance takes the stretch of Riverwalk behind the L&N Depot and fills it with vendors, food trucks and music for four hours on a Saturday morning in the first week of August, which is not an accident. Early August is when mountain tomatoes finally come in heavy. Growers at 1,600 feet do not get the same June harvest that eastern North Carolina does, and the festival hits the moment the crop peaks.

Four food and beverage trucks are on the schedule this year: DragonAss BBQ, The Ark, Jack's Magic Beans and The Six Broomsticks. Vendor booths include Newfound Meadows Farms, Paint Me Fancy, Faith and Flour, Murphy Scuba, Project Chimps and the Appalachian Beekeepers' Association, along with others still filling in.

That mix tells you what kind of event this is. It is not a curated food festival with a gate and a wristband. It is closer to a very good Saturday market that decided to throw a party, with a scuba shop and a chimpanzee sanctuary set up between the tomato tables.

The Family Fun Tent handles the kids. Live music runs through the morning by the river, and past years have leaned toward Americana and old-time players who fit the setting rather than a stage act you have to stand and watch. Jared Smith played the 2025 festival, with Johnny Scroggs handling emcee duties.

Bring cash. Many vendors take cards now, but the smaller farm stands move faster when you have bills, and the lines at four food trucks over four hours can get long around noon.

The Bloody Mary Competition Is the Reason to Buy a Ticket

Ten dollars gets you into the tasting and gives you a vote, and it has turned into the main event. Last year's field pulled from three towns and covered the full range of what Cherokee and Clay counties pour behind a bar.

Chevelles 66 and Chevelles 69 both entered. So did The Mason Bar, Mountain Vale Lodge, Nocturnal Brewing out of Hayesville, Ramsay's Kitchen from Harrah's Cherokee Valley River Casino, and The Tattered Tartan Pub in Andrews. Seven entries from six businesses, which for a county of about 29,000 people is a real showing.

The judging runs in two tracks. A panel handles the professional category, and everybody holding a ticket votes for People's Choice. In 2025 the panel gave first to Nocturnal Brewing, second to The Tattered Tartan Pub and third to Mountain Vale Lodge. The crowd went a different direction and handed Mountain Vale Lodge the overall People's Choice win, with Ramsay's Kitchen taking second.

Look at the judges, because it says something about who runs things around here. Casey Kerr from the Cherokee County Tourism Development Authority, Kam Thompson from Hoppy Trout Brewing in Andrews, and Tommy Townsend from Grandaddy Mimm's Distilling. Tourism, beer and moonshine, sitting at one table deciding whose tomato juice is best.

If you want the tasting, get there early. How much each entrant can pour limits the ticket count, and a competition that draws seven serious entries tends to sell through before the morning is over.

The Farmers Market Is the Other Half of the Morning

TomatoFEST does not replace the Murphy Farmers Market, it piles on top of it. The market operates in the same footprint at the Depot on Saturday mornings through the growing season, and the festival runs right alongside it. In 2025 the timing lined up with National Farmers Market Week, which is exactly the kind of thing the organizers pay attention to.

What that means for you is a much deeper produce selection than a normal festival food row. Growers bring what came off the vine that week, plus baked goods, eggs, honey and handmade crafts. In the first week of August that means tomatoes in quantity, but also corn, beans, squash, peppers and the first of the late-summer melons.

The Cherokee Clay Food Alliance has used past festivals to hand out free tomato seed packets and recipe cards, and to run cooking demonstrations showing people what to do with fifteen pounds of tomatoes when they get them home. That is a practical problem in August around here, and people solve it with canning, sauce and a lot of sandwiches.

Speaking of which, the tomato sandwich has become its own tradition at this thing. Pop's Big Cheese Wagon showed up in 2025 with a six-variety tomato sandwich menu built specifically for the festival. White bread, mayonnaise, salt, pepper and a tomato still warm from the field is not a complicated food, and it is a good argument for living in these mountains in August.

The market side of the morning is where the money actually lands with local growers. As the organizers put it, support for TomatoFEST and the Farmers Market puts your support directly back into the hands of Cherokee and Clay County neighbors.

The Nonprofit That Built This From Nothing

The Cherokee Clay Food Alliance is four years into this festival and only got its 501(c)(3) certification from the IRS in 2024, which gives you a sense of how young the organization is and how fast it has moved.

Its stated mission is to improve access to locally grown food in Cherokee and Clay counties by strengthening farmers markets and the local food system through education, entrepreneurship and sustainable practices. In plain terms, the alliance works both ends of the problem. It helps small growers find a place to sell, and it helps people who need food get it.

One program is a Local Grower Farmstand, which gives growers a way to move surplus produce that would otherwise rot in a field or a truck bed. Anyone who has grown a garden in this climate knows the problem. You get nothing for weeks and then you get more than you can possibly use, all in the same nine days.

The alliance also buys produce from small farms across Cherokee, Clay and surrounding counties and distributes it through the markets, and it provides weekend food for students in need in both counties. That last piece matters in a region where school meals carry more weight than most visitors realize.

So TomatoFEST is a party, but it is also the fundraising and visibility arm of a small nonprofit doing steady work the other 364 days of the year. The ten dollars for a Bloody Mary ticket and the twenty you spend at a farm table are not incidental. For an operation this size, a good Saturday in August moves the needle on what they can do in October.

Murphy in August, Beyond the Festival

The festival ends at 1 p.m., which leaves the better part of a Saturday. Murphy is worth the rest of it.

Downtown sits a short walk from the Depot, and the storefronts along Valley River Avenue and Peachtree Street have filled in considerably over the past several years. There are antique shops, a few good places to eat, and the kind of hardware store that still knows what you are talking about. The Cherokee County Historical Museum sits right there in the middle of it if the afternoon turns hot.

The rivers are the real draw. The Hiwassee and the Valley meet at Murphy, and the Riverwalk follows the water for a few miles through town. It is flat, shaded in stretches, and one of the easier walks in the region for anyone who is not looking to climb anything. Bring the dog.

Push a little further and you have the Nantahala National Forest in every direction. Hanging Dog Recreation Area sits on Hiwassee Lake just north of town. Andrews is fifteen minutes east if you want to see what Hoppy Trout is pouring. Hayesville and Lake Chatuge are half an hour toward the Georgia line, and Nocturnal Brewing is right there.

August weekends in Cherokee County have a particular rhythm. Early mornings that still need a light layer, hot afternoons, and thunderstorms that build over the ridges around four o'clock and clear out by supper. Plan the outdoor part early and let the afternoon go where it goes.

How to Do It Right

Get there at nine. The first hour is the best hour, when the produce tables are full, the food truck lines are short and the temperature is still comfortable. By eleven the Riverwalk is busy in the good way, but you will be waiting.

Park once. Downtown Murphy has street parking and lots within walking distance of the Depot, and moving your vehicle for the shops afterward is more trouble than it is worth on a festival Saturday.

Bring a cooler or at least a bag with some ice packs. If you buy tomatoes at nine and leave them in a hot car until two, you have wasted good tomatoes. Locals do this every single year and still keep doing it.

If you want the Bloody Mary competition, buy the ticket early and bring your ID even if nobody has questioned your age since the first Bush administration. The rule is 21 and up with valid identification, and the volunteers checking are following it.

Come hungry but pace yourself. Four food trucks, a market full of baked goods and a tasting competition is more than most people plan for. And if you are bringing children, the Family Fun Tent will hold their attention long enough for you to actually talk to the growers, which is half the point of going.

A small mountain town decided a vegetable deserves its own morning by the river, and it has kept showing up for it four years running. Cherokee County has a lot of these weekends, and people who spend one here in August have a way of pulling up listings on the drive home. When that happens, my phone is on.

Sources: Cherokee Scout: TomatoFEST Aug. 1 in Murphy, Cherokee Scout: 3rd annual Tomato Fest a spicy smash in Murphy, Cherokee Clay Food Alliance, Town of Murphy Main Street events

 

Frequently Asked Questions

When and where is TomatoFEST in Murphy NC?

TomatoFEST takes place Saturday, Aug. 1, 2026, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on the Riverwalk behind the historic L&N Depot in downtown Murphy, North Carolina. This is the fourth year for the festival, which is organized by the Cherokee Clay Food Alliance, a nonprofit serving Cherokee and Clay counties. The Depot sits at the edge of downtown, within easy walking distance of Peachtree Street and Valley River Avenue, so you can park once and cover the festival, the farmers market and the shops on foot in a single morning.

Is TomatoFEST free to attend?

Yes. General admission to TomatoFEST and to the Murphy Farmers Market running alongside it costs nothing, and there is no ticket or registration required to walk in. You pay only for what you buy from the food trucks, farm stands and craft vendors. The one exception is the Bloody Mary competition, which requires a $10 ticket and is limited to guests 21 and older with valid photo identification. That ticket covers your tasting samples from the competing bars and restaurants and your vote in the People's Choice category.

What food and vendors will be at TomatoFEST 2026?

The 2026 lineup includes food and beverage trucks from DragonAss BBQ, The Ark, Jack's Magic Beans and The Six Broomsticks. Vendor booths feature Newfound Meadows Farms, Paint Me Fancy, Faith and Flour, Murphy Scuba, Project Chimps and the Appalachian Beekeepers' Association, among others. Because the Murphy Farmers Market operates in the same space that morning, you will also find growers selling summer produce, baked goods and handmade crafts. August is peak tomato season in the mountains, so the farm tables tend to be the busiest part of the whole event.

Who competes in the TomatoFEST Bloody Mary contest?

Local bars, restaurants and breweries from across Cherokee and Clay counties enter the competition. The 2025 field included Chevelles 66, Chevelles 69, The Mason Bar, Mountain Vale Lodge, Nocturnal Brewing, Ramsay's Kitchen and The Tattered Tartan Pub. Nocturnal Brewing of Hayesville took first in the professional category judged by a panel, with The Tattered Tartan Pub of Andrews second and Mountain Vale Lodge of Murphy third. Mountain Vale Lodge won the People's Choice vote outright, with Ramsay's Kitchen second. Judges have included representatives from Cherokee County Tourism, Hoppy Trout Brewing and Grandaddy Mimm's Distilling.

Is TomatoFEST family friendly?

It is. The festival runs a Family Fun Tent with activities aimed at kids, and the whole event is set outdoors along the Riverwalk with room for strollers and wagons. Live music plays by the water through the morning, and past years have included cooking demonstrations, free tomato seed packets and recipe cards handed out by the Cherokee Clay Food Alliance. The 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. window works well for families with young children, since you can arrive early, eat lunch off a food truck and be home before the afternoon heat sets in.