This fall marked the 52nd Annual Half Moon Bay Art & Pumpkin Festival. This yearly festival took place in downtown Half Moon Bay at 500 Main Street, hosting dozens of vendors, patrons and onlookers throughout the weekend event. This autumnal festival celebrated all the pumpkin patches in the Bay Area, even showcasing some of the largest pumpkins and gourds grown this season.
The Art & Pumpkin Festival has been around since 1971. The Main Street Beautification Committee created the festival to raise funds with the hope of using the money to renovate Main Street, which was in dire condition. It attracted a lot of attention, quickly raising tons of money to fix up the area, and the tradition has continued every year since. Since then, the festival has changed to include many more modern events.
Currently, the festival kicks off a week in advance with the Safeway World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off, which includes a prize of nine dollars per pound of the winning pumpkin or a $30K world-record prize. This year’s Weigh-Off champion, Travis Gienger of Anoka, Minnesota, won with a pumpkin weighing in at 2,741 pounds, making this his fourth win in the competition’s history.
The following weekend, the festivities consist of a pumpkin parade, a costume competition, dozens of vendors selling their products and much more. Both people looking to buy or just browse will be treated to over 250 of America’s top craft makers. With elaborate pumpkin carvings and many more fall-inspired arts-and-crafts, this is an event that can be enjoyed by the whole family. Games such as a corn hole toss and a pumpkin pie eating competition for both kids and adults keep crowds entertained, while three stages of live music give the setting a folksy and enjoyable ambiance. More active events include the 46th annual Pumpkin Race, which can be a 5k, 10k or half-marathon race.
“[This year] there were a lot of cool booths, I worked at one of them for a couple hours which was really fun,” said Half Moon Bay local and junior Sofia Gladman. “I recommend that everyone [who attends the festival] should take a picture with the giant pumpkin, and visit the food stalls.”
This festival presents a great opportunity for the community to bond, and for non-locals to visit the town.,Vendors use this yearly opportunity to showcase their work, often with a fall-inspired twist to the goods that they sell. Also, this event brings awareness to the vitality of agriculture, much of which happens right along the coast.
“I go to the Pumpkin Festival every year, it’s nice how all of Half Moon Bay comes together,” said senior Claire Odderstedt. “When I was younger, I was in the parade, which was really cool.”
With this small town festival garnering lots of popularity, traffic can sometimes become a worrisome problem, but with free parking available and a long open time from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., there was plenty of time and opportunities for everyone to get to experience this festive tradition. Once reaching downtown Half Moon Bay, practically everything was within walking distance, including the entire festival, the beach, and dozens of small businesses and restaurants.
Festival admission is free and open to all. Visit the Half Moon Bay Art & Pumpkin Festival next October to experience this unique autumn event.
