Keene’s annual Pumpkin Festival was another huge success this year, breaking their attendance record- previously set in 2004 at 70,000- with a whopping 80,000 pumpkin perusers. The beautiful weather certainly had a positive effect on the event, with clear skies and-not-too chilly temperatures bringing locals as well as out-of-staters from far and wide. License plates in the parking lots revealed people from Massachusetts and Connecticut, as well as thousands of New Hamshire-ites.
According to the Pumpkin Festival webiste, the final tally of pumpkins rounded out at 24,682, falling almost 2,000 short of the record set in Keene in 2003 and about 6,000 short of Boston’s final count of 30,128- to whom the world record went this year.
However, while an attempt at a world record is fun, in the end it’s not about the record, it’s about the experience. Four towers sat at the four corners of the event, acting as landmarks for those trying to meet up amid the crowds, and as a generally awe-inspiring pumpkin pillar.
Pumpkins displaying all manner of carvings, both Halloween and not-so-Halloween, covered the streets of Keene. Carvings included the traditional: skulls, cats, witches and ghosts, the political: “Had enough? Vote Democrat” – said one pumpkin, another with a eagle flying in front of an American Flag, and still another with “Vote Charlie Bass” carved into it, and the absolutely adorable: specifically, five pumpkins that popped the question: “Will you marry me Polly?” (The proposal was accepted.)
Local businesses and vendors in Keene await the Pumpkin Festival each year with high hopes for a great night of business. Keene’s hemporium said that the festival is the busiest night of the year for them; they have all their employees on deck and ready to work the entire day and night. Vendors set up tents to provide food and drink for the visitors and consistently sell out of many of the items on their menus. Each year, crowds continue to exceed expectations, even as new vendors add their services to the event.
Historically, according to Pumpkin Festival’s website, Keene’s Pumpkin Festival started in 1991 as the “Harvest Festival,” an interesting way to bring the city together for Halloween. The first festival saw a little over 600 pumpkins and several thousand people and was considered a huge success. After the immense success of the first year, the idea was made to have it be an annual event and the tradition was born. 1992’s festival earned them a place in the “Guinness Book of World Records” for the most jack-o-lanterns in one place in the United States with 1,628 pumpkins.
After that, the competition was on. Each year, Center Stage Cheshire County, who runs the event, began to set higher and higher goals for their pumpkin gathering. 1993 saw 1992’s record shattered with 4,187 pumpkins, and 1994 saw numbers skyrocket to over 10,000 pumpkins, each year claiming the elusive World Record. In 1995, the festivities were officially renamed the “Pumpkin Festival,” but fell just about 300 hundred short of breaking the record set the previous year.
1996 brought over 13,000 pumpkins to Keene, with the largest weighing in it at almost 700 pounds, with some traveling from England, Denmark, Yugoslavia and Ecuador to participate in the world record shattering event. 1997 just barely beat out the previous year, setting a new record by only 388 pumpkins. 1998 smashed all expectations when 17,693 pumpkins made their way to the festival, along with between 30-40,000 spectators. 1999 had record-breaking crowds at 50,000, but the record from 1998 held, with that year’s total falling 1,344 short of the record from the previous year.
2000 celebrated the new century with a new record – 23,727 pumpkins – smashing 1998’s record by more than 6,000. 2001 did not see a new record, but patriotic pumpkins celebrated America and proclaimed messages of peace, love and remembrance. 2002 missed the record set in 2000 by just under 5,000, but almost 45,000 people came to enjoy the event.
2003 brought more than just a record-breaking year, it also brought a first for the 13th Pumpkin Festival – a wedding. A couple from Connecticut decided that this record-breaking festival would be a great time to, after an eight-year engagement, get hitched. 2004 and 2005 both fell short of the record attempt but still saw record numbers for attendance. Boston tried to overtake Keene in 2004, but they could only manage to scrape together 16,402 pumpkins, so the record from 2003 held firm. This year, the 2003 world record was broken by Boston with their 30,128 pumpkins
For 15 years, the Keene’s Pumpkin Festival’s has been a staple of the Halloween celebration for all of New Hampshire. The event continues to grow each year, and perhaps next year will be the year that Keene reclaims their place in the record books.