Sweet Potato Festival

Visitors to the Livingston Sweet Potato Festival come in from the dirt parking lot off Dwight Avenue, the only public entrance. In 2026 it had four doors. Entry was $2 for anyone over three, cash only, with a search by consent at the gate. The $5 parking fee went to the Livingston Police Department’s Explorer Post 518. Just inside, bin marquees list the varieties of sweet potato on hand.

The grounds are the Max Foster Sports Complex, a 25-acre city park at Dwight and Walnut. The rest of the year it holds three baseball and softball fields, a lit soccer field, three lit basketball courts, a covered picnic shelter and a snack bar. The City of Livingston’s recreation department runs the festival over three evenings in late September. In 2026 those were September 25, 26 and 27, under the theme “Great American Sweet Potato Road Trip.” Gates opened at 5 p.m. on Friday and 4 p.m. on the weekend and closed at 10 or 11 at night. A week before, Jacquie Benoit of the recreation office was still asking residents for five or six old suitcases to use in a festival game.

A dollar a pound in the Food Court

Every food vendor is required to carry a sweet potato item. The festival schedule sums up the result as “Pies! Fries! & More!” At the 2026 festival the recreation department named Dino Boba its vendor winner, for loaded sweet potato fries. The Sweet Lemon Shack came with lemonade, limeade, crafted soda and flavored tea.

The Food Court also holds a Sweet Potato Farmers Market. It sells varieties from local growers at $1 a pound, mixed and matched, and the money goes to a local non-profit. New in 2026, according to the schedule, LFA set out different varieties of “taters” for tasting. Each night at 8:30 a sweet potato pie eating contest for those 18 and over is held near the Dining Tent. The Beer Garden opened Saturday and Sunday evenings at 4.

Knights, luchadores, and a rev contest

The carnival is the Midway of Fun, out of the Sacramento area. In 2026 an unlimited one-day ride pass cost $30 in advance and $35 at the gate, and the city says carnival ticket sales help keep festival entry cheap. The rest of the 2026 program listed live bands, lucha libre, a Kid Zone, a Dress your Tater contest, art exhibits and a Mercantile Marketplace.

Friday night in 2026 brought the first Knights Quest Battle for the Crown. Youth groups, clubs, sports teams and school organizations formed teams for a medieval challenge at 5 p.m., paying $2 per participant to compete for a $500 grand prize. Afterward the recreation department posted, “First Knights Quest!! Great fun!! Congratulations to Livingston Explorer Post 518!” It was the same post that collected the parking money at the gate.

Saturday belonged to the fourth annual MADCAP Car Show, which ran from 6 to 11 p.m. on September 26. All makes and models were welcome, with judging, trophies, raffles and a rev contest. Staff from West America Bank helped register the cars.

Punjabi dance and a camel named Abby

In 2019 the Merced County Times covered what it called the eighth annual festival, also held at Max Foster. The program then included a carnival, live music, a petting zoo, an educational exhibit, a train, a car show, crafting events, vendors and a craft beer tasting. The paper reported that some 300,000 tons of sweet potatoes are produced in the area each year.

Friday that year was given to Punjabi culture. Cre8ive Entertainment and the Vasda Punjabi Academy performed through the afternoon. Cooking demonstrations showed Indian spiced sweet potato patties and samosa-stuffed sweet potatoes. The Friday car show drew more than 30 cars, among them a 2016 Ford Focus ST belonging to Leo Griffith of Delhi.

On Saturday came a pro wrestling show, the pie eating contest, and sets by Cynthia Huddleston Bennett and the Juke Joint and by Mike Hammer and the Nails. The culinary exhibit served sweet potato churros, quesadillas, casserole and toast, and food vendors were already required to sell at least one sweet potato item. Sunday closed with lucha libre and performances by Polvo Norteno and Los De Anxinar.

In the KidZone, children put their faces through sweet potato head cutouts and played life-size chess and checkers on the lawn. In the petting zoo, a six-month-old pig named Wiggles waited for snacks, and Jennifer Rodriguez of Winton posed with Abby the camel. The mayor, Gurpal Samra, told the paper, “Our diversity is our strength. If you look at our welcome sign, it’s written in four languages. We showcase our diversity through the festival by culturally celebrating and sharing how we have fun.” He added, “We are known for our festivals here. I think we have more festivals than any other city.”

The Last Stop and the missing E

The city’s own history begins in 1862 with David Baldwin Chedester, a wagon master from Iowa who is credited as the first settler. He supplied food and produce to the gangs building the railroad. On November 4, 1871, the day before the Central Pacific crossed the Merced River, Edward Olds, a former member of the railway gang, set up a saloon and clothing store on the riverbank. The only other building was a grain warehouse that William Little had put up in 1868. Little owned 2,500 acres and platted 80 blocks, 40 on each side of the track, hoping the size would win the county seat. He offered 25-by-125-foot lots for $1.00 if it did. In 1872 the town lost that election to Merced by 200 votes.

The town was to have been named for the explorer Dr. Livingstone. In 1873, on a petition for a new post office, the final “E” was dropped by mistake, and the town became Livingston. Cyrus Bliven bought out Little’s holdings in 1883 and grew grain on the unsold townsite. His mansion later became known for séances, and then as a hideaway for Bill Dalton, who had married Bliven’s daughter while hiding from the law in Kansas.

Irrigation rights-of-way were granted across Bliven’s land in 1908, and water reached the land by 1909. The town was incorporated in 1922 with Charles Daman as its first mayor. The city’s history lists who came to farm it. The Mexican population is the largest group. The Yamato colony is described there as “the only Japanese colony in America.” Portuguese from the Azores became prominent in dairying and in sweet potato farming. Filipinos filled a need for farm labor, Mennonites found a religious haven, and more recently Sikhs of India have arrived.

For decades the city’s motto was “The Last Stop.” It referred to the last traffic light on Highway 99, which had disappeared about 20 years before 2015. That year Capital Public Radio reported that Livingston, a city of 15,000 that grows 95 percent of California’s sweet potatoes, was changing its motto. “Nobody now remembers why we got the motto ‘The Last Stop’ and so we felt it was outdated and we need to reflect who we think we are,” said Samra, then mayor pro tem. “We’re a hard working farming community, we are best known for Foster Farms, Gallo Wine, Gallo Cheese, and sweet potatoes.” The only complaint he had heard was about the cost of replacing the city seal, which carried the old slogan on uniforms, city vehicles and stationery. He said the change would be phased in over time.