DATE: MARCH 8, 2026
HOT SPRINGS NATIONAL PARK, Arkansas — The Titanic Tater is on track for its return appearance March 17 in the First Ever 23rd Annual World’s Shortest St. Patrick’s Day Parade® in downtown Hot Springs.
Yes, the Famous Idaho® Potato Tour is returning to downtown Hot Springs after missing the 2025 parade due to scheduling issues.
“All I can say is, ‘Wow!’” said Steve Arrison, CEO of Visit Hot Springs and one of the founders of the 98-foot parade on Bridge Street, the World’s Shortest Street in Everyday Use. “When that four-ton stupendous spud and its trailer make the 90-degree turn off Central Avenue onto Bridge Street, the crowd goes wild. It’s one of the favorite entries in our annual event. It’s a really tight squeeze for the Potato to turn onto Bridge Street, but they’ve made it with three inches to spare each time since they began participating in 2019.”
The bodacious baker, billed as The World’s Biggest Potato on Wheels, and its accompanying truck and trailer — at a combined 72 feet long — have been a crowd favorite every time. The spud and its trailer weigh a combined 44,320 pounds. The rig is 72 feet long, 10 feet wide and 13 feet tall.
The tremendous tuber was scheduled to return to the parade in 2020, but that parade and the 2021 event were drastically reduced in size because of the global covid pandemic. It came back to Hot Springs in 2022, 2023 and 2024.
Laura Martin, spokeswoman for the Biggest Potato, said last week that the prodigious pomme de terre was on the schedule for this year’s Hot Springs appearance. She said the tour schedule was extremely tight this year and the big spud would pull into town the same day as the parade.
The Big Idaho Potato Truck tour began in 2012 as a one-year campaign to celebrate the 75th Anniversary of the Idaho Potato Commission and became quickly apparent with its success that it would be more than a one-year occurrence, it literally became a big piece of pop-culture.
Martin said, “The Truck and Tater Team travel the country promoting the certified heart-healthy Idaho potato and its mission to help small charities in towns and cities with its A Big Helping program. Not to mention that people just want to have their picture taken with a four-ton Idaho potato.”!
The four-ton Big Idaho® Potato is the equivalent of 21,562 Idaho® potatoes, according to its sponsors. A real titanic tuber of that size would take 7,000 years to grow, they say. It would take two years in a hot oven to bake the brobdingnagian baker and would make 20,217 servings of mashed potatoes or 970,380 french fries. It is 802 times heavier than the largest potato ever grown, which tipped the scales at 11 pounds.
This year’s parade will have celebrity grand marshal Carmen Electra, official starter American Ninja Warrior host Matt Iseman, guest celebrities Dan Hampton and Savannah Bananas’ Dancing Umpire Vincent Chapman, and the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders.
The 23rd edition of the internationally acclaimed little parade will cover the 98-foot length of Bridge Street, the World’s Shortest Street in Everyday Use, according to Ripley’s Believe It Or Not. The parade has brought worldwide attention to Hot Springs and helped expand the city’s reputation as a city that knows how to have fun.
It began in 2003 when Arrison and some friends sharing an adult beverage in an establishment adjacent to 98-foot Bridge Street came up with the idea of using the street as the location for some fun. Bridge Street was named by Ripley’s Believe It or Not as the world’s shortest street in everyday use. The parade swiftly gained attention around the globe for the hilarious premise that gave birth to its annual aura of audacious hilarity. Upwards of 30,000 people are expected to gather in downtown Hot Springs for the 2026 parade.
It has been named numerous times in many media outlets ass being among the Top 10 St. Patrick’s Day parades in the world.
It annually features a lineup of outrageous wackiness that includes a troupe of Marching Irish Elvis Impersonators, the World’s Tallest Leprechaun, zany floats and marching units, plus a surprise or two.
For more information call Steve Arrison at 501-321-2027.