1994: More than 20,000 people praise pumpkins
The festival tops 10,000 gourds for first time

By ERIN CADDELL and ALICE FULD, Sentinel Staff

Early Sunday morning, downtown Keene had an orange hangover.

Carved up pumpkins were scattered everywhere, looking messy in the thin morning light. After the incredible record-breaking festivities that produced 10,540 glowing jack-o'-lanterns Saturday night, a massive cleanup was under way.

A few people roamed Main Street, searching for interesting pumpkins and taking them for their own, while organized volunteers swept rotting orange globes off stoops and scaffolds into garbage trucks and pickup trucks.

Among the volunteers tossing pumpkins into a garbage truck was a mysterious figure in an orange ski mask, orange shirt, orange shorts and orange running tights. Elliot "Pumpkin" Snow, a financial consultant from Dublin, had dressed for a Halloween road race in Keene that morning, but, he would later tell his family, his orange presence made him jack-o'-lantern 10,541.

When Charles Wilkinson started the daunting task of counting jack-o'-lanterns late Saturday afternoon, three large scaffolds along Main Street-each containing more than 1,000 jack-o'-lanterns -- were already filled. And orange gourds of all shapes, sizes and visages were still rolling in.

For the third year in a row, Wilkinson and his Keene accounting firm of Lehman and Wilkinson had the job of counting the jack-o'-lanterns for the Harvest Festival's world record. In 1992, the firm tallied 1,628 pumpkins. In 1993, the number was upped to 4,817.

Wilkinson knew the record would be broken and he knew that the counting would be that much tougher this time.

"There were a lot more people this year," Wilkinson said afterward. "The problem was getting through them all to count the pumpkins."

But Wilkinson and his team of 13 official counters responded to the challenge. They divided up Main Street when the official jack-o'-lantern registration ended at 6 p.m. and began pushing through the crowds to begin counting.

When the counting was done, Wilkinson's suspicions were confirmed. Just after 8 p.m., it was announced that a whopping 10,540 jack-o'-lanterns had smashed last year's record, bringing a collective cheer from the crowd and drawing high-fives on the organizers' platform.

The festival brought thousands into downtown Keene for a day of entertainment, trick-or-treating and people watching. Lots of people watching. Keene police estimated that with the heavy advance publicity and near-balmy weather, between 20,000 and 30,000 people -about the size of Keene's entire population--participated in the event. At one point, about 7 p.m., it's estimated 15,000 people were swarming on Main Street.

Despite the crowds, there were few problems. Police investigated one theft, and 14 children were separated from their parents throughout the day. The kids were all reunited with their parents.

The festivities began at 11 a.m. and ran into the afternoon and evening. Main Street was blocked off between Central Square and Emerald Street. Dozens of vendors lined the streets, and various musical groups performed throughout the day.

The Colonial Theatre showed the classic "Phantom of the Opera," and Keene Gas on Central Square turned its offices into a haunted house. Children could ride ponies or a special "Pumpkin Mobile" sponsored by High Hopes Farm in West Moreland.

For downtown merchants, the festival was a boon for business. For area residents, it was a chance to take pride in their city and show off a little bit to visitors from throughout New Hampshire, New England and beyond. "There aren't too many places left that would have something like this." said Claire Gillum of Keene.

"It's a great way to bring the community together," said Fred Wiese, also of Keene and a junior at the Dublin School. "The festival's a lot more organized this year, too."

The crowd was part of the show, with hundreds of kids most of them dressed, it seemed, as Power Rangers) and even a fair number of grownups in costume. After an afternoon costume parade, downtown businesses offered trick-or-treating for children 10 and younger. "We're going to get lots of candy today," said Josh Ioannou, 6, of Alstead, in anticipation.

"And this year, they get to trick-or-treat twice," said Josh's grandmother, Jeannette Lecuyter of Keene. "They've got it made."

Despite the distraction of candy, the focus of this festival was clearly the pumpkins. Hundreds had been brought in from area schools and businesses during the week and placed on the three-story scaffolds on Emerald Street, Central Square and Railroad Street.

Throughout the day people brought in thousands more and checked in at several "World Record Log Book Sign-In" sites along Main Street.

Monthira Babanthan and Romanee Pinijprasubsuk had come all the way from Bangkok, Thailand, for the festival. Well, not really. They were visiting a friend, L.A. Adams, in Brattleboro. But they were happy to add a jack-o'-lantern to the record breaking effort.

By evening, almost every step and patch of grass was covered with orange. About 70 festival volunteers lighted all the pumpkins, and a light wind blew only a few of them out.

Just before 6 p.m., the sunset offered an orange more brilliant than the glowing jack-o'lanterns. With nightfall, the crowd grew. People milled around admiring the carved designs, everything from an intricate profile of Frankenstein, to corporate logos, to a pumpkin with a snorkel and a pair of goggles.

Just after 8 p.m., the crowd turned its attention to the Central Square scaffold for the tally.

"I thought we would break it," Nancy Sporborg, executive producer of the festival, said as she stepped down from the platform. "But 10,000? No way."

And what about an encore? Will some upstart city give Keene a run for its money? Can 10,540 be beaten? "I'm not going to worry about it," an excited Sporborg said. "I'm going to enjoy it tonight, and worry about breaking the record tomorrow."

With her third world record in a row, Sporborg is stepping down as executive producer of the Festival for Center Stage Cheshire County. She has worked full-time at the job for three years.

"What I viewed my job as was to get Center Stage and these events up and running," Sporborg said. "My thing is the vision and creativity, getting people excited about it. It's not the maintaining." She said she will continue to be involved with Center Stage, but she's not sure what else she'll do next.

The cleanup went smoothly, and by Sunday morning there was little evidence that the festival had occurred. Many took advantage of the offer to take pumpkins home. The thousands left were loaded into trucks. They will be sent to area pig farms.

"The pigs will be eating high on the hog," joked Charles W. Parks, a volunteer with the Keene Area Radio Emergency Squad. "They'll have a good Thanksgiving."

This dispatch was published Monday, Oct. 31, 1994 in The Keene Sentinel