Downtown business leaders' views mixed on plan to move Pumpkinfest to Weirs

LACONIA — The plan to relocate the New Hampshire Pumpkin Festival from downtown, where it has been headquartered since 2015, to Weirs Beach has prompted strong reactions, especially from those who work around Main Street.

Some see it as a lost business opportunity, others see it as a loss of a more personal nature, as the event had become synonymous with the recent renaissance of the city’s downtown. Yet one person acknowledged inconveniences associated with the event, and another suggested the event might have more potential at Weirs Beach.

“I’ve had about 15 calls,” said Rep. Charlie St. Clair (D-Laconia), owner of the Laconia Antique Center, who was also instrumental in bringing the event to Laconia. He summed up the sentiment of most of those callers with this: “What were they thinking?”

“When I was able to get the organizers in Keene to move Pumpkinfest here to Laconia, the mayor, Ed Engler, saying this would be a great benefit to the city, the idea would be for it to be downtown,” St. Clair recalled. “The plan was always to keep this a downtown event.”

When the festival’s original organizers looked for someone local to assume management of the event, it was the Greater Lakes Region Chamber of Commerce that rose to the challenge.

Last week, chamber President Karmen Gifford announced this fall’s festival would be headquartered on Lakeside Avenue in Weirs Beach. She explained that, since Pumpkinfest came to downtown, the city’s core had experienced a change of economic fortunes, and it was becoming increasingly difficult to fit a street festival in among the municipal offices, social service agencies and thriving businesses. Weirs Beach is typically empty in late October, and they’d have an easier time setting up all the festival’s usual hallmarks, plus adding new elements, at the new location.

St. Clair, who is for many the face of Laconia Motorcycle Week, said, “I challenge anyone to say they love Weirs Beach more than I do,” yet he was disappointed that Pumpkinfest appears set to move there. “Somehow, someway, this event needs to stay in downtown Laconia.”

At Shield Comics & Games, owner Jason Thomas said his business will have a lost opportunity without the Pumpkinfest crowds, as he would see a lot of walk-in customers who had never visited prior. Though, he added, the impact he’d feel would be moderate. He was more concerned with what the festival had come to mean for the city’s center.

“People coming for Pumpkinfest, and not known that downtown had improved, was a good thing for downtown,” Thomas said, because each time they came back for Pumpkinfest they’d find a city more vibrant than their last visit.

At Bootlegger’s, workers were split on their views. Maddy Poire said she enjoyed having Pumpkinfest right outside the store’s front door. “It was so nice, lots of people were walking around,” she said.

Lauren Labrecque said the store posted some of its biggest sales days of the year during Pumpkinfest, especially if there was an autumnal chill in the air, and festival-goers found a sudden need for a warm hat, scarf or mittens.

“It needs to stay here,” Labrecque said. “All our small businesses rely on it.”

Jake Hairston, though, said he could see the event gaining from a move to Weirs Beach, especially if the arcades along Lakeside Avenue were to open for the weekend.

“I’m all for it being at The Weirs,” Hairston said.

At Laconia Village Bakery, owner Rachael Marsh said she wasn’t a fan of the move.

“It was a great little event, and they took it away from us,” Marsh said.

“Laconia gets a bad rap sometimes,” and Pumpkin Festival gave people a reason to come into the city and see the new shops, revitalized Colonial Theatre and other signs of growth.

Her business did well during the festival, Marsh said, but it was a mixed bag. Her regular patrons stayed away; instead she got to serve a new group of people. They ended up working longer days because of the festival, “but we enjoyed it, never had an issue with it.”

“I’m sad it’s not going to be here,” Marsh said, adding she would like to see downtown merchants organize their own attractions and continue to draw visitors downtown during the event.

That’s in line with what Gifford was hoping, as she said last week. Her hope in moving the festival wasn’t only to find a location with fewer constraints, but also to decentralize the event. She said she hoped other businesses and communities around the region would organize their own attractions to coincide with NH Pumpkin Festival, Friday and Saturday, Oct. 25-26.

“I have heard from some folks and there are going to be some elements of New Hampshire Pumpkin Festival activities and events that will be downtown,” Gifford said, noting the chamber is establishing a subcommittee to work on just that.

Gifford said the Winnipesaukee Scenic Railroad will operate out of both its downtown Laconia station and Weirs Beach location. The Runaway Pumpkin road race will also continue to take place, as it always has, out of Opechee Park.

“I’m excited that it’s going to be in both places,” Gifford said. “I’m looking forward to it. We’re never going to please everyone. As we’ve grown, we’ve touched a lot of people. We’re here to serve all of Laconia and beyond.”