Saturday, October 19, Keene will host its 22nd annual Pumpkin Festival. Known for its spectacular display of jack-o-lanterns that line downtown Main Street and an enchanting tower of pumpkins in the city’s square, the event often brings floods of people from all across New England, as the festival doubles or even triples the city’s population.
Despite the upbeat and positive spirit of this massive event, Campus Safety officials and the Keene Police Department also know the festival might lead to an increase in safety incidents.
Lieutenant Shane Maxfield of KPD said their main concern for Pumpkin Fest is keeping everyone out of harm’s way. “Our biggest concern from year to year to year is just safety and the orderly conduct of the event. We don’t want anybody to get hurt, we want everybody to have a good time,” Maxfield said.
In previous years, the city has allowed food and craft vendors to operate on Main Street, which Maxfield said increased pedestrian congestion. What the city did last year and will continue to do is have vendors move to the parking lots on Commercial Street and Gilbo Avenue. This has helped minimize crowds and kept downtown orderly.
Another safety concern is parking. Director of Campus Safety, Amanda Warman, said that because of the amount of visitors during Pumpkin Fest, parking is a huge issue. Having a sound parking procedure is important, Warman said. “We want to make sure people just aren’t parking all over the place because that’s unsafe. So many people from the general public just say ‘oh there’s a college there, we can park there’ but we want to make sure there’s enough space for students who have paid for parking and for our faculty and staff,” she said.
Parents and alumni with valid parking passes are permitted to park on campus. Students who have a parking pass for the Winchester lot may park in community and faculty/staff lots. All visitors are encouraged to purchase a parking pass for Winchester lot, however not on lawns or ends of rows.
And what would a college town be without parties? The main allure of the festival to friends of KSC students that attend other schools is the well-known lively nature of the party scene. While Residential Life has restricted the number of guests on campus (students can have to just one), the number of party-goers still seems to rise significantly.
KPD focuses on off-campus issues while Campus Safety handles operations on campus. The college also hires outside agencies to assist Campus Safety. In previous years, UNH officers have been a second pair of helping hands but because of short staffing this year New Hampshire State Police will be the replacement.
“The reason we need [the state police] is because of the volume of off-campus incidents that KPD can’t respond [to] on campus, so we don’t want to get into a situation where we have to take possession of drugs or things like that where the police should really manage it,” Warman said.
In regards to off-campus parties Warman advises students and their guests to seek alternative activities. “I would really ask students to know where they’re going. I know there’s this desire to go from house to house and that may not be the right choice. I think there’s other things that are happening on campus and downtown that are legal and that the potential for problems is significantly less.”
Senior Nikki Faietta said that KPD and Campus Safety’s presence during Pumpkin Fest weekend is necessary but possibly overbearing. “They’re definitely doing what they’re doing with good intentions, but it just comes off a little overboard than what really needs to be done, so they kind come off as party poopers, if they just toned it down a little bit it’d be fine.”
Howeve, Maxfield explained the reasoning for being attentive to large, unruly parties is to assure that other members of the community can enjoy the weekend just as much as college students. “We’re all for parties and everything but you need to remember that for the most part that students are guests of the city and there’s a bunch of people that live here in the city and if they just try and be considerate to other people, then there’s no need for recourse,” Maxfield said.
Disruption of the college neighbors is also a problem Warman identified. “I think they really respect and support the college but its difficult for them to feel positive towards us when they’re being woken up late at night and their kids are being woken up and they’re stealing the kids’ toys, stuff like that,” Warman said.
All in all, Pumpkin Festival is to be enjoyed by everyone: residents, visitors and the college community. “We want everyone to enjoy, including the kids, but we want it to be done safely. We don’t want major disruptions because of parties and things like that,” Maxfield said.
Rachel Heard can be contacted at rheard@keene-equinox.com