We are celebrating our 11th Giant Pumpkin Weigh-Off and Festival in Ridgefield! See the giant pumpkins take over Ballard Park in Ridgefield on our new date…. this Sunday, October 1st from 10am-3pm!
The Connecticut Giant Pumpkin Growers Club is excited to see the community come together again this year to enjoy the giant pumpkins and festival! In addition to giant pumpkins, there is so much planned for the day! Vendors include farm stands, local businesses, community groups, and more! Several vendors have fun children’s activities planned. Travelin’ Tom’s Coffee Truck, Kona Ice Truck, and the Greek Crave food truck will all be joining us. Bring your appetites! Musicians from the Ridgefield Suzuki School, School of Rock, and Bach to Rock will all be performing throughout the day.
This year we are excited to welcome Jessica Manfro, an amazing professional pumpkin carver, to the event. Jessica will be doing a pumpkin carving in the park. Raffle tickets will be for sale and one lucky winner will bring home a professionally carved pumpkin!
Be sure to decorate a pumpkin at home and bring it to Ballard Park to enter the pumpkin decorating contest! Pumpkins can be carved or decorated. Invite your friends to join you at the weigh off and you can all vote for your favorite decorated pumpkins.
This year we are hoping to break the Ridgefield weigh-off record and weigh the first pumpkin in Ridgefield to ever go over 2,000 pounds!! The current Ridgefield weigh-off record is held by Joe Jutras with his 1,954 pound giant. Be sure to stop by Ballard Park on Sunday to see if we set a new Ridgefield record!
You may be wondering - what exactly is a pumpkin weigh-off? Growers bring their giant pumpkins, grown in New England, NY, PA, NJ on pickup trucks and trailers to Ballard Park. The pumpkins are lifted off the trucks and lined up in the park until the weighing begins. A large scale is set up by the gazebo. The pumpkins are measured to estimate their weight (some will go heavy, some will go light) and then weighed in order of expected lightest to expected heaviest. Plaques, ribbons, and cash prizes are awarded to the winners. In addition to giant pumpkins, growers will bring giant green squash, long gourds, field pumpkins, marrows, bushel gourds, and giant tomatoes to compete for awards in those categories. Come early and watch the giants get unloaded from their trucks. Try to guess which one you think will be the heaviest. Weighing begins at noon in front of the gazebo!
The Giant Pumpkin Weigh-Off Festival is made possible by the generous support of our sponsors: Ridgefield Parks & Recreation, Agriventures Agway, Fletch’s Bagels, Gemstone Farm, Hamlethub, Henny Penny Farm, Hollandia Nurseries, Kona Ice of Ridgefield, Macaroni Kid of Greater Danbury, and Travelin’ Tom’s Coffee Truck. Be sure to stop by Ballard Park on Sunday, October 1st and see the great pumpkin right here in Ridgefield!
Schedule of events for the day:
10:00am - 3:00pm - visit our vendors, vote for your favorite pumpkins, see the giant pumpkins, grab food from the food trucks
10:30am - Ridgefield Suzuki School performance
11:00am - 2:00pm - check out the live pumpkin carving and buy a raffle ticket
11:45am - School of Rock performance
12:00pm - giant pumpkin weighing begins (smallest to largest)
1:00pm - Back to Rock performance