If you’ve been following along with local media you will have known that The Great Pumpkin Carnival was held recently on the 3rd of April at Hamilton Gardens.
The heaviest pumpkin we weighed in was 789.5kg’s grown by well known local pumpkin grower Tim Harris, he beat his record last year by 35kg’s which means he still holds the NZ record, and has pushed the goal slightly further for all other growers out there.
It was a great day had by all, even if there was some rain during parts of it. From giant pumpkins, to the miniatures, pumpkin racers and downhill pumpkin rolling there as something for everyone.
Here are some of the photos I captured on the day, a lot more can be found here on the photos page or check them out on The Great Pumpkin Carnival Facebook Page (like and share) and make sure to check out Up and Adams photos as well, as they are pretty epic.
You may or may not know that I help organise The Great Pumpkin Carnival each year which gives the whole event a different vibe for myself. In fact I don’t actually see much of the Carnival at all, which is a bit of a bummer really.
This year we were fortunate enough to have a bunch of volunteers help us out which was great. But looking forward to 2017, yes we already have the date booked. The 2nd of April in case you were wondering, we will need to do more work and make things easier for us.
This year is also the first year we are an incorporated society and we are having our first AGM in August which will be great. The hardest thing I find sometimes is finding people that are as passionate about a giant vegetable as I am. Getting ideas from people is awesome and I love the different perspectives on everything, it is very valuable, but you sometimes need more than just ideas and need the drive to get everything across the line.
Also getting people that can lift pumpkins also help the cause, I have a plan for next year for that so keep tuned in. I have to admit think I learned a lot more from this carnival then I realised, even if I had the occasional whinge about things to a couple of people.
Guide to Running a Pumpkin Event
To help out other people with their pumpkin events I have put together a FREE guide which you can sign up and get delivered to your inbox just by entering your details on the right →
It will give you ideas of categories to have, planning your event and lots of other things to think about and provide you with a solid start for your own pumpkin event.
I will be sending out an email very shortly to people who have received the guide just to ask how their events went, what they want to know more about and what things could be improved, I also want to send out a couple of informative pieces of info that may help out organisers for next year.
Growing giant pumpkins is a passion that I love sharing. 🎃 If you’ve found my content helpful or entertaining, why not say thanks with a coffee? ☕
It’ll fuel my next giant pumpkin adventure!
