As fall kicks into full gear, Keene community members can look forward to one staple making a return: the Keene Pumpkin Festival.
The festival, which was created in 1991 by Nancy Sporborg, is an autumn-themed event held in Central Square in downtown Keene, which features thousands of carved pumpkins and jack-o’-lanterns lining the streets and various vendors participating.
The festival was organized by the committee of Center Stage Cheshire County from 1991-2010, with the ensuing year switching hands over to Let It Shine Inc., a nonprofit.
The festival gained notoriety over the years as organizers set the Guiness World Record in 2003 for most lit jack-o’-lanterns in one place, totalling 28,952 counted. The 2003 record was later broken in 2006 by the city of Boston at 30,128, which later prompted Keene to retake the record in 2013, with 30,581 lit jack-o’-lanterns.
The 2013 festival also became the focus of HGTV show Pumpkin Wars, in which hosts Drew and Jonathan Scott, also known as “The Property Brothers,” travel to Keene as well as Highwood, Ill. to determine which community would break the record.
However, in 2014, the event would catch national attention as riots that occurred just outside the perimeter of the festival, largely perpetrated by college students, caused organizers to lose their city permit the following year. Without a permit, the festival was moved to Laconia, N.H. from 2015-2019, and 2021, as organizers had to cancel 2020’s event due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2022, Let It Shine Inc. returned the festival back to Keene, with a more scaled-down, child-centered focus, and was named “The Gathering of the Gourds.”
This year, however, marks the planned return of the full festival, with Let It Shine Inc.’s Facebook page having posted a July 27 announcement that the festival would come back on Oct. 21, beginning at 2 p.m. on Main St.
In the months following the announcement, the organization has posted calls-to-action that include ways to donate, sponsorship and vendor opportunities and volunteer work. In addition, there have been fundraisers with Five Guys, as well as Applebee’s, in which a percentage of proceeds from purchases go to the organization.
Nathan Hope can be contacted at
nhope@kscequinox.com
