When the Big Idaho Potato dropped at midnight in front of the Capitol Building on New Year’s Eve, the Big Idaho Potato Truck, which was front and center for the “spudtacular” show, officially ended its 2018 tour.  And what a year it was.

The truck traveled more than 40,000 miles and participated in 68 scheduled events, including four events with over 300,000 attendees — St. Patricks’ Day Parade in Pittsburgh, Art Car Parade in Dallas, National Memorial Day Parade in Washington, DC, and the Rose Festival in Portland, OR. Fifteen events had over 100,000 attendees, including Indianapolis Indy Car Race in Indianapolis, IN; NASCAR in Bristol, TN; St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Hilton Head, SC; Pegasus Parade in Louisville, KY; and the SeaFair Festival in Seattle.

The truck donated $12,000 to 21 charities across the country through its “A Big Helping” program. It was also invited to appear at American Idol’s Semi-Finals in Coeur D’Alene, ID, and generated more than 300 million media impressions.

However the biggest news of the year was the unveiling of Big Idaho Potato 2.0. Weighing in at four tons, the fiberglass potato is just as impressive as the original, but with a few subtle differences. The potato is still 28 feet long and 11.5 feet high, but it’s a little trimmer in the middle (10 feet wide), and two tons lighter so it can travel to more places. The original potato, which was only supposed to last one year, became too road worn to travel and now resides in its home state of Idaho.

“The Big Idaho Potato Truck continues to drive many of our marketing campaigns. It’s the focus of our national television commercials, it helps promote the potato’s impressive nutritional profile and generates hundreds of millions of impressions for the Idaho potato brand,” said Frank Muir, president and chief executive officer of the Idaho Potato Commission. “Now that we’ve got a new fiberglass potato, there’s no end in sight for the biggest potato on wheels.”

After seven years the Truck’s track record is pretty impressive:

• The average tour length is six months
• The truck has traveled approximately 211,722 miles
• It’s attended events in 651 cities/towns
• 46 events had more than 300,000 people in attendance
• 76 events had more 100,000 people in attendance
• The truck has traveled through more than 10,000 cities and towns, nationwide and all lower 48 states
• “A Big Helping” has donated $67,000 to 124 charities located across the country
• Millions have taken pictures of the Big Idaho Potato Truck on their mobile devices
• Every day IPC receives appearance requests from fans, festivals, and events, all over the country
• Media coverage to date is in the billions

The 2019 Big Idaho Potato Truck Tour schedule will be available in early February 2019 at www.bigidahopotato.com.