Keene Pumpkin Festival

From Keene Pumpkin Festival Website:

Keene Pumpkin Festival Shines: Plans for 2018 Begin

Sunday, October 28, 2018, 1-7pm
at Central Square, Downtown Keene

The event started as a Harvest Festival in 1991, when downtown merchants, through a newly formed Downtown Association, paid for and hosted the first festival. Their aim was to bring new life and vitality to a downtown that seemed to be on the verge of collapse with stores closing, little foot traffic and even less excitement. As the community centers heart got healthier, fame sprouted. The invitation to simply carve a pumpkin to help break a World Record appealed to many. And, when people arrived in downtown Keene and saw the Main Street filled with shimmering pumpkins smiling as they sat cheek-to-cheek on scaffolding towers, milk crates and ladderswell, they were blown away. They had to come back the next year and bring Aunt Eleanor and Uncle John.

The Pumpkin Festival has been broadcasting to the world what can happen when people come together for no other purpose than making magic happen. The Festival, unlike most other Festivals, has no ulterior motives. It is not about making money, amassing funds for charity, selling stuff, or trying to get votes. The heart of the Pumpkin Festival lies in the pumpkins. The meaning of the Pumpkin Festival lies in everyones participation. The beauty of the Pumpkin Festival lies in what is created together. What better gift could there be than to show the world what a community can do?