Sep.
21/09

Pumpkins Everywhere

Fall means pumpkins. Here are a variety of festivals to channel your inner punkinhead. My favorite? The last one.

Tualatin, Oregon: Each year on the last Saturday of October, the West Coast Giant Pumpkin Regatta is held in this town a short drive from Portland. Participants race in boats made from giant pumpkins around a lake. It is the only event of its kind on the West Coast, and afterward, the pumpkins are made into compost. In addition to the race, there will be food, live music, clown, professional pumpkin carver and additional family activities.
Participants in the West Coast Giant Pumpkin Regatta in Tualatin, Oregon

Bradenton, Florida: The 18th Annual Hunsader Farms Pumpkin Festival is held the weekends of October 16-18 and 24-25. This working family farm pulls out all the stops for visitors each fall, providing you-pick fresh-from-the-farm Halloween pumpkins, as well as interesting entertainment for all ages. This year features a magic show, a dog show, and a classic car show. There’s also a corn maze, hay, train and pony rides, a petting zoo and barnyard playground.

Atlanta: Stone Mountain Park holds its seventh annual Pumpkin Festival this year every weekend in October. The festival features kid-centered activities including a Pumpkin Tumbler inflatable obstacle course, pie-eating contest, and The Great Pumpkin Puppet Parade…say that three times fast.

Keene, New Hampshire: This is the grandaddy of them all , held the weekend of October 16th. Over 25,000 lit jack-o-lanterns are displayed throughout the Central Square downtown area. The lighting is followed by hay rides, pumpkin-mobile rides and fire engine rides. Try your hand at the seed-spitting contest.

Nassau, Delaware: The Punkin Chunkin Festival is not for the faint of heart. As festival promoters reason, what better to do with all the leftover pumpkins from Halloween besides hurl them more than a mile through the air? Held the weekend after Halloween — big duh, right? — the competition is fierce, as techniques are handed down from generation to generation. Check the video to see what all the fuss is about.

By Lisa Rogak for Trip Quips