'Big Splash' for 10th annual Saratoga Giant Pumpkinfest
All the details of the upcoming event, vendors and more!
Positively Saratoga
This exciting Positively Saratoga news is brought to you by our friends at the Saratoga County Chamber of Commerce.
The Saratoga Giant Pumpkinfest, the annual fall festival that ushers in the autumn tourist season, is turning 10, with leveled-up hoopla going down this Saturday. Organizers are asking people to swing by downtown Saratoga Springs and marvel at giant pumpkins — some over 2,000 pounds — listen to music, eat food and shop at the farmer’s market.
“So being the 10th anniversary, we wanted to have a big splash with it,” says Andrea Mulholland, an organizer with the Saratoga County Chamber of Commerce. “We get about 1,000 attendees every year, and we have some people traveling across state lines to see these competitions.”
In fact, people have traveled from as far as Ohio to compete or to see the pumpkins, she says.
It is a family fun event, and part of the 10th anniversary “big splash” includes more activities and vendors.
According to the chamber’s event page, the celebration will have live music performed by Mandolins Too; photo and petting opportunities with Upset, the Mini Dark Horse; and treats by Stewart’s, Nothing Bundt Cakes, Neighborhood Kitchen, Kings Dairy and Thorn + Roots. The regular Saratoga Farmer’s Market next door on High Rock Avenue will also include food vendors and special exhibits.
It’s also an Instagrammable opportunity to snap a picture of you or your kids with one of the jumbo pumpkins.
Ultimately, though, it’s a competition and will draw as many as 40 growers showing their huge pumpkins, their longest gourds and their heaviest watermelons.
Taking part are giant pumpkin growers from Saratoga County and around the Northeast, and representatives from the Great Pumpkin Commonwealth — a group that encourages giant pumpkin-growing and fair competition.
Grower Andy Wolf has been around since the beginning.
“It’s a great little contest,” he says of the Saratoga event. He lives near Buffalo and goes to many of these events each year.
“We moved it [to Saratoga] because we had had a contest in Cooperstown for 10 years,” but Cooperstown no longer wanted it, he says. “So we did it in Woodstock for a year and then moved it to Saratoga.”
Originally, it ran at Sunnyside Gardens in Saratoga, but it outgrew that space, too.
Wolf was inducted into the Great Pumpkin Commonwealth Hall of Fame in 2021. He has led presentations (one of which is 40 PowerPoint slides long) on giant pumpkin-growing from seed and soil to harvest. He entered the group’s 1,400 Pound Club in 2005 and the 2,400 Pound Club in 2022.
“It’s kind of an addiction,” he says, to grow a pumpkin each year and get it weighed. “There’s this drive to get bigger and heavier…every year.”
Plus, the fun is seeing the pumpkin grow at up to 60 pounds a day, which is a noticeable change day-to-day, he says, adding, “It’s kind of cool to see how visually big they are getting.”
Although it’s a competition and some money can be made by showing a prize-winning pumpkin, it’s still about fun and community, he says. Growers at the event will give away seeds to help people get started, or they’ll talk about best practices all in the spirit of camaraderie.
“It’s not some crazy secret society,” Wolf says. “If you can grow a good garden, you can grow big pumpkins.”
If you go:
When: The event runs this Saturday, Sept. 27, 11 a.m. to around 2 or 3 p.m., depending on how many pumpkins need to be weighed.
Where: Saratoga Springs City Center parking garage, lower level, High Rock Avenue. (Click here for the location.) Parking in the garage is available on the upper floors. Enter the parking garage through the Maple Avenue entrance.
Who helps: Festival vendors include Saratoga Wood and Honey, King Brothers Dairy, Thorn + Roots, Neighborhood Kitchen, Nothing Bundt Cakes, Saratoga Independent School and Northern Rivers Family of Services/Unlimited Potential. This event is presented by Stewart’s, ADKtechs and Hudson Valley Credit Union, with supporting sponsors Upset the Saratoga Miniature Dark Horse and Capital Bank.
The Saratoga County Chamber of Commerce organizes the event.
