Mush, Music & Mutts: NC Liver Mush Festival began in homage to liver mush but has become a true picture of the culture and traditions of the area and Uptown Shelby. The festival now features liver mush not only as a menu item but also in numerous events around the festival, including a liver mush eating contest, liver mush recipe contest and a liver mush cook-off where 2 chefs go head-to-head to combine liver mush with items from a Mystery Box filled with ingredients from the foothills farmers market.

Enjoy a kids zone with many free activities for kids, including: corn hole and other yard games, free custom poems created on the spot on an old-fashioned typewriter by The Poetry Fox and free balloon creations by Ross the Balloon Guy. Local partners will provide 500 tiny pumpkins for kids to paint and take home.

New this year: Find Pumpkin Bowling and Pumpkin Tic-Tac-Toe in the kids zone, and learn about the history of liver mush from an interactive program hosted by the The Earl Scruggs Center: Music & Stories from the American South.