NORTH SWANZEY —
Jennifer Matthews is about to be bombarded with pumpkins, but she’s
sitting in her newly rented office just a stone’s throw from the
Cheshire Fairgrounds looking as cool as a cucumber.
Matthews’ company,
Memorable Events LLC, is tackling the job of putting on the first
Monadnock Pumpkin Festival at the Swanzey fairgrounds Saturday, Oct. 24,
and she’s determined to make it a success — and an annual event for
years to come.
A professional event planner
based in Westmoreland, Matthews said the idea for hosting the festival
came to her as she was driving past the fairgrounds in April. The week
before, the Keene City Council had denied a permit for the 2015 downtown
festival following rioting in the city last October outside the annual
event’s footprint.
She wondered why it couldn’t simply be moved to a better-suited location.
“Without the downtown component, it becomes a whole lot less insane,” she said.
Matthews had helped put on the
2005 Keene festival as a member of Center Stage Cheshire County, and
knew the logistics it would involve. She just had to get enough people
excited about the idea to get it off the ground.
They weren’t hard to find.
Past participants and businesses
stepped up. Former members of Let It Shine Inc., which organized the
past four Keene festivals, lent their expertise. And the region loves
its pumpkins, she noted.
She’s counting on that love to
bring out lots of people, all carrying carved pumpkins (and candles) to
add to the festival display. Matthews isn’t out to break any records
(Keene holds the Guinness record for most lit jack-o’-lanterns), but she
wants and needs those pumpkins to turn the fairgrounds into acres of
glowing gourds.
To that end, Memorable Events
will host a free community pumpkin-carving event Thursday, Oct. 22, from
4 to 6 p.m. at the Cheshire Fairgrounds. Pumpkins will be provided;
participants are asked to bring their own carving tools. The Stoddard
PTO will host a bake sale for those who need a sugar boost to complete
their jack-o’-lanterns.
People can drop off their
pumpkins Friday, Oct. 23, from noon to 6 p.m., or just bring them on
Saturday when they come for the festival.
“It’s been a great community effort, and a lot of it has been grassroots,” she said.
She’s also working with downtown Keene businesses to ensure they get to see a share of the day’s profits.
Some will offer discounts to
those who display their entry bracelets from the fairgrounds. A few will
have a presence on-site, directing festival-goers to offerings
downtown. There will also be booths for local artists and craftspeople
to promote their work.
And she’s gone out of her way to
ensure that local nonprofit groups — many of which have depended on the
annual pumpkin festival in Keene as their major fundraiser — get in on
the action. Matthews has 25 booths set aside just for nonprofit groups,
and they’ll be paying about $300 for the spaces, half the price they
paid for a space downtown, she said.
Matthews has planned live music, a
large tent filled with activities for kids, pumpkin carving and
catapulting contests, a children’s costume parade and a fireworks
display to close out the day’s events.
The costume contest has taken on a
life of its own, she said, with people clamoring for “cosplay,” or
costume play, where participants wear costumes and accessories to
represent a specific character from manga, anime, comic books, cartoons,
video games, or live-action films and television series.
There will also be “larpers,”
live-action role players, who act in character, interacting with one
another as part of a larger performance.
The Great Pumpkin Mile road race
will benefit a new Elm City Rotary Club project, which gives away pairs
of new sneakers to 2nd-graders in Cheshire County. The club also puts on
the annual Clarence DeMar Marathon. Sponsors have lined up to host the
“The Pumpkin Mile” and donate prizes to the winners.
In addition to the road race,
there’s Fright Fest, put on by the Keene Lions Club, with proceeds from
that attraction going to support the club’s community outreach programs.
Then there’s the baking contest —
pumpkin pies for adults to enter for competition, pumpkin breads for
kids. She’s asking each participant to make two: one to judge, the other
to sell, with proceeds benefiting The Community Kitchen in Keene.
And she’s promising the pumpkins
will be a very visible part of the new event. She’s not giving away too
many details at this point — she wants it to be something of a surprise —
but there will be zigzag scaffolding to display the entries, as well as
pumpkin-laden towers and structures designed by the Keene State College
architecture department.
The one thing that won’t be
available at the fair is alcohol. Matthews says it’s going to be a dry
event, and backpacks and coolers will be subject to search by fair
security guards. Those found with alcohol in their possession will be
asked to leave.
The fairgrounds, being an open
space, has no occupancy limit, so the crowds are limited only by the
amount of parking Matthews is able to line up.
Right now, between the
fairgrounds, the nearby Dillant-Hopkins Airport and the donation of
parking from Moore Nanotechnology Systems, down the road from the
fairgrounds, she’s got space for about 8,000 vehicles at any given time.
Cost is $10 per car, with some of the proceeds going to the Monadnock
Center for Violence Prevention; the Cheshire Fair Association, which
owns the fairgrounds property; and Rouleau’s Taekwondo school.
She expects some turnover — the
folks who arrive at 10 a.m. aren’t likely to still be there 10 hours
later when it wraps up — and she’s keeping her fingers crossed for good
weather.
“But if social media is any indication, it’s going to be well-attended,” she said.
The Monadnock Pumpkin Festival
will be held Saturday, Oct. 24, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. at the Cheshire
Fairgrounds in Swanzey. Admission is $5, with children ages 5 and under
free. Information: monadnockpumpkinfestival.org or on Facebook.
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