2008: A new look....a new counting method
Sentinel Staff
The Keene Sentinel
published 10/23/2008
While the streets of Keene will include a splash of orange and flurry of activity this weekend, Pumpkin Festival will look different than previous years.
Event organizers from Center Stage Cheshire County are hoping some changes to the design of the festival, including new displays, a different method for pumpkin tallying and a ramped-up Community Night on Friday, will bring the festival back to its roots — as a community event.
The most obvious change to the festival this year will be the elimination of two pumpkin towers — rows of scaffolding that hoisted hundreds of grinning and grimacing jack-o’-lanterns high above Central Square and lower Main Street — according to William W. Harris, president of Center Stage.
The towers will be replaced by 240 large A-frame structures linked together with rows of 12-foot wooden planks that will stand about 6 feet high and snake through Central Square and down Main Street.
Each of the A-frame structures will hold 80 to 100 pumpkins, and will bring the display closer to eye level, Harris said.
Pumpkin towers at Railroad Square and Gilbo Avenue will be erected, which Harris said have been certified as safe by engineers, but public safety was one part of the decision to scale back the use of scaffolding, he said.
A more subtle, but very important change will be the way pumpkins are tallied, Harris said.
To officially count the pumpkins, all of them will have to be logged in at registration stations throughout town. The official tally of the pumpkins will come from the registration log, not a physical count. Deadline to submit a pumpkin is 8 p.m.
If Keene exceeds 30,128 pumpkins — the world record currently held by Boston — the count will be to the Guinness World Records committee for consideration.
For those who want to take part in the festival, but avoid the throngs on Saturday, events Friday night have been expanded to include food, music and hay rides between Central and Railroad squares.
