This is just to get you guys excited for a little last minute carving. Look at this exemplary spirit!
Keene, New Hampshire (pop. 22,843), is the town known the world over – really, it’s world-famous –for its 20-year-long pumpkin carving tradition. The Keen Pumpkin Festival is basically the entire state – men and women, young and old – carving as many gourds as their commitment can handle, in pursuit of the Guinness World Record. Since 1991, the year of its inception, Keene Pumpkin Fest won the Guinness World Record eight times, the last being in 2003 with 28,952 pumpkins.
Photo: Al Braden
Since then they struggled to beat their own record only to have Camp Sunshine’s charity fest, held in Boston, do it for them in 2006, with 30,126 pumpkins lit. It was a sad year for Keene…
I had the pleasure of attending Keene’s pumpkin fest the following year, and you could carve the air like a gourd there was so much expectation! Sadly, 2007 brought neither their record back, nor did they beat 2006, but they did have an incredible turnout and lit 25,644 pumpkins (check out my gallery of the event, below!). Earlier this month, the 19th annual fest clocked in at 29,068 lit pumpkins (they must be lit to be counted), their greatest year ever, but still some hundreds short of the world record… Maybe next year you’ll go and help them??
Gallery: Keene Pumpkin Fest, 2007
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