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A vendor booth selling festival shirts and other merchandise. Livermush Festival - October 18th, 2025
Visitors explore Uptown Shelby during the livermush festival. October 18th, 2025
Mack's handing out livermush sandwhiches at vendor stand. Livermush Festival - October 18th, 2025
Little girl holding a sign selling red velvet and chocolate chip cookies in front of a vendor stand. Livermush Festival - October 18th, 2025
A look at Uptown Shelby during the livermush festival. October 18th, 2025
Shelby, NC - On Saturday, October 18th, 2025, Shelby celebrated 40 years of the NC Livermush Festival, drawing crowds of visitors united by their love for mush, music, and mutts.
By late morning, locals and visitors were making their way to the Earl Scruggs Center for a deep dive into the cultural and culinary history of livermush. Between stories, laughter, and the smell of sizzling samples, guests were treated to three local varieties, but first, let's explore the history behind the small town delicacy known as livermush.
Livermush, as explained during the presentation, is a loaf made from pork liver and cornmeal, seasoned with salt, black pepper, and sage. “It’s really not as unhealthy as people think,” joked Sandy Smith, a member of Guest Services at the Earl Scruggs Center, drawing laughter from the crowd. More seriously, she encouraged attendees to check the ingredients for themselves: “It might be strange, but it’s not unhealthy.”
You might be wondering, "Where does livermush come from?" Its roots trace back to German immigrants in the 1700s, who brought similar recipes to America and found clever ways to use every part of the pig. Settlers from Pennsylvania carried it down to the Shenandoah Valley and into Western North Carolina.
By around 1851, Cleveland County was still recovering from the agricultural hardships of the early 19th century. Many families couldn’t afford expensive cuts of meat or imported goods, so dishes like livermush offered a nutritious, affordable, and sustainable way to eat well on limited means. Far from “rich folks food,” livermush became a staple of resourceful Southern cooking.
Smith also shared a vividly humorous story from her younger days. “I put the whole hog's head in a pot to boil,” she confessed, prompting laughter and disbelief from the crowd. When she lived in Raleigh, she wanted to raise her children the same way her parents had raised her, by making homemade livermush. After butchering the hogs, an experience she admits was horrifying, she decided to persevere and take the hog’s head home. Placing it in a pot, she watched it boil and laughed: “You can’t imagine the horror of boiling a pig’s head in your kitchen, but I really wanted to make the livermush.”
These days, most folks get their mush from local producers like Mack’s or Jenkins. After the presentation, attendees sampled three regional varieties cooked by Mary Beth Martin, Executive Director for the Earl Scruggs Center. The sample tastings included: Mack’s, Corriher, and Jenkins. Everyone voted on their favorite, with Corriher taking home the unofficial title of “Top Mush.”
Between bites, attendees shared their favorite ways to enjoy livermush: fried until crispy on a biscuit, spread with mustard or mayonnaise, or even paired with grape jelly. No matter how you serve it, livermush pairs with just about anything you can think of.
At the end of the event, everyone joined in singing the livermush song with local music legend Sandy Carlton. Written by Gene Cox, the chorus goes:
"It's livermush for breakfast, livermush for lunch.
Livermush for dinner, and it's livermush for brunch.
Livermush on biscuits, and livermush on toast,
Livermush and okra, that's what I like the most."
Guests were also encouraged to explore the Earl Scruggs Center’s exhibits celebrating the region’s cultural roots. The museum is preparing for major renovations, with exciting new interactive exhibits expected to open in early 2026.
For the past forty years, the Mush, Music, and Mutts Livermush Festival has been celebrated in Cleveland County, where food, music, and dogs can be seen on every street corner.
The festival featured more than 100 craft, food, and beverage vendors stretching across four blocks of Uptown Shelby, making 2025 the largest year for vendors in its 40 year history. As the festival’s main livermush vendor, Mack’s drew a steady crowd. Livermush was in high demand across the festival, selling quickly at nearly every food stand.
The merchant vendor lineup included local businesses, small artists, and non-profits, creating an authentic community showcase. Admission was free for all ages. Families enjoyed pumpkin painting in the Land of Rhythm Kids Zone. Meanwhile, adults were able to purchase beer and wine from various vendors. They enjoyed live performances by the Amanda Cook Band and other talented musicians across three festival stages.
And of course, the mutts join in on the excitement. A standout moment of the day is the Dog Costume Contest, hosted by RollOver, where local dogs show off outfits ranging from Wednesday Addams to Snoop Dogg. The festivities kick off with a parade through uptown Shelby, with dogs and their owners proudly displaying their Halloween spirit in full costume. While there were many dogs at the festival, volunteers for RollOver estimated that over fifty canine contestants were entered into the costume contest itself.
In Cleveland County, the story of livermush isn’t just about what’s on the plate, it’s about the people, the pride, and the history that keeps it sizzling for generations.
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