YOAKUM — The 98th Tom Tom Festival — so named for Yoakum’s rich farming heritage, particularly in the tomato growing department — was held June 5-6 at the City Park Pavilion and Community Center.
The two-day event features the annual parade, complete with marching bands, an eclectic array of classic automobiles and farm tractors, and floats from local businesses, churches and several visiting Chambers of Commerce, including towns like Cuero, Lockhart, Luling, Schulenburg, Shiner, McDade, Moulton and Floresville.
Like many area communities, Yoakum formed as a railroad town, and because tomatoes and many other vegetables flourish there, several canneries soon opened because of its prime location near the growing fields and ready rail access. The festival launched when it did because this is the time of year that tomatoes are ripe for the picking. Since cotton and corn served as most people’s main cash crops, tomatoes provided many farm families a little “extra money” for things like wedding celebrations, new home furnishings and many other fineries they may not have known otherwise.
As such, Tom Tom proved quite the celebration in its early days. Those canneries may be long gone today, as is widespread interest in tomato growing and, by and large, the reliance on rail to ship goods, but Tom Tom still draws hundreds to Yoakum each year, the first full weekend of June, with events such as a barbecue cookoff, a carnival, rodeo events, the Tomato Trail 5K and concerts, typically featuring a nice lineup of performers from the Texas and local music scenes.
