Tourists: Say it ain’t so
by Steve Gilbert
Sentinel Staff
Published: Sunday, October 17, 2010
The little pumpkin with the big frown and sad eyes drew lots of attention Saturday. It was in a line of thousands of pumpkins in the Main Street median across from Cumberland Farms. A yellow Pac-Man pumpkin — a pac-dot in its mouth and three pac-dots forever running ahead of it — was next to it.
But that’s not why so many people stopped to stare at the little pumpkin and take its picture. A wooden sign sticking out of the right side of its head carried the words, “Farewell Keene Pumpkin Fest 2010.”
“Is it really true?” asked Beth Maloney of West Chester, Pa. “This is the last one?”
Just as the aroma of grilled hamburgers and pumpkin cider filled the air up and down Main Street, so did the echoes of that question.
Thousands of out-of-town visitors, unaware that Center Stage Cheshire County is bowing out after this year, seemed baffled that this could be the final Keene Pumpkin Festival.
“It’s just sad to think that this is the last one,” said Mary Woods of Nashua, whose daughter is a junior at Keene State College. “It’s such a wonderful event and we love coming here.”
It’s not as if its popularity is waning. Police and fire officials estimated about 70,000 people came Saturday; many annual festival-goers said the crowds were as thick as any as they could remember.
That translates into big profits for the dozens of nonprofit organizations that lined Main Street as food vendors. Stores were packed all day — many clerks said people were buying, not just browsing — and the ATM line at TD Bank on Main Street was consistently dozens of people long.
Meanwhile, once a huge focus of the festival, it seems the jack-o’-lantern count is becoming less relevant. At 22,943, Keene came up several thousand short in its bid to wrest the Guinness World Book of Records mark from the defunct Boston festival. But the reaction was more of a collective shrug than a groan.
Boston may have the record, but Keene has the reputation as being the best. Just jump online and check out the blogs.
“Keene is known around the country for the pumpkin festival,” said Frances Wichland of Westlake Village, Calif., as she took a picture of the little pumpkin. “It would be a shame if you gave it up. We need wholesome things like this, where you’ve got couples, senior citizens, kids, families, all having a good time together.”
Wichland, who has relatives in Manchester, said she visited a few years ago and felt this year was more festive and crowded.
Sandy Balchunos of Springfield, Ohio, wanted to take in the New England foliage with her husband, Keith. They learned about Keene online and decided to spend a week in Vermont and New Hampshire, with the pumpkin festival a must-see.
“I found out about it on the Internet,” Balchunos said. “Everyone says Keene is the king of pumpkin festivals, so here we are.”
She said she was surprised when she overheard some people saying this could be the last one.
“This is absolutely fabulous,” Balchunos said. “We’ve spent the last hour just looking at the carvings. They’re incredible. I can’t imagine why (Keene) would want to stop this.”
Val Collins of Keene was checking in pumpkins at the station on lower Main Street. A volunteer for eight or nine years, she said the festival’s future is the No. 1 topic on the minds of people.
Her stock answer is that Center Stage is pulling out and it’s possible another group could step in and keep it going. Collins also noticed something else.
“I think we’ve had a lot more donations,” she said, referring to the orange box at the check-in station. “People are putting twenties (dollars) into that thing. We really didn’t see that before.”
And what’s a pumpkin festival without a marriage proposal? Former Sentinel reporters Jake Berry and Anna Haigh met several years ago on a bench outside The Sentinel building on West Street.
They returned Saturday and Berry snuck a “Will you marry me?” jack-o’-lantern on that same bench for Haigh to find.
She said yes.
Just 15 minutes earlier, at 3:45 p.m., festival-goers had briefly stopped taking pictures of the little pumpkin and pointed their cameras skyward. There, with the sun at their backs and dark clouds in the east, a rainbow appeared.
Wonder if it was a sign.
Steve Gilbert is a columnist for The Sentinel.
