Laconia Pumpkin Festival ready for its debut

After an extensive effort by city staff to assume responsibility for organizing the Laconia Pumpkin Festival, the event lineup is packed with events for visitors on Saturday, Oct. 25.

The festival opens at 11 a.m. with craft shows on Main Street and at the Belknap Mill, as well as scenic train rides departing on the hour at the downtown train station. 

There will be performances from groups like Tara Little’s School of Dance at a stage set up at Bank of New Hampshire, and the Wicked Witches of the Lakes Region near the pumpkin tower, which will likely feature hundreds of squash.

Live music, cornhole, bounce houses and belly dancing performances are just a few more of the events scheduled for the city’s first independent go at running the pumpkin festival. 

“We were given this task with about seven months total to accomplish it. I was excited, but exceedingly nervous,” Director of Recreation and Facilities Amy Lovisek said Tuesday evening at a meeting of the city council. “I couldn’t be more thrilled with the team that was put together for this, they have been over-the-top helpful and they have done so much.”

Laconia Pumpkin Festival will end at 8:10 p.m., following a laser show at the pumpkin tower, a 34-foot structure meant to hold about 900 gourds.

“Please bring us your carved pumpkins, we need them, please make sure they’re carved, because we don’t want to carve them for you, and we can’t put up pumpkins that are not carved onto the tower itself, it needs to have a light shining through it,” Lovisek said.

If members of the public bring a set of pumpkins meant to spell out a phrase, Lovisek said they should attach a note, so organizers can identify the phrase meant to be communicated.

Pumpkin drop-off is between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 24, near City Hall along Beacon Street East.

“If we have over the 900 pumpkins, which I’m hoping we do, we have A-frames that will go in front of the tower, and it will showcase in front of the tower,” Lovisek said. “Anything that any businesses want to do out front of their businesses, I’m all for that as well.” 

Over 90 vendors reached out to the city unsolicited, Lovisek said. The craft and artisan show will host another 80 vendors to the festival. 

“There’s quite the array of things that people can see and do, and buy and sell, and eat,” she said. 

They’ve got two locations for bounce houses, on Church Street and Beacon Street West, and a kids zone will be located on the walking path by the old Soda Shoppe. A rock climbing wall and 4-H livestock exhibit are two other activities provided for children attending the festival. 

The Wicked Witches of the Lakes Region will perform three times, Stormbirds Belly Dancers will perform twice, and Tara Little School of Dance will perform an Irish jig. Musical performers include a Disney-themed band called The Little Mermen & Princess Pals, the Whitney Doucet band at 4 p.m. on the Bank of New Hampshire Stage, and 1980s tribute band Axis at 6 p.m. on the same stage. 

“We are doing other things in order to make money,” Lovisek said, referring to T-shirts and coffee mugs available for sale at city hall. The mugs have two different themes, both with the Laconia Pumpkin Festival logo. 

The Belknap Mill will also host a pumpkin art exhibit, there will be a cornhole tournament near Hector’s Fine Food & Spirits on Beacon Street West, a nine-hole mini golf course will be set up on Main Street and the Colonial Theatre will show movies thrice, free to the public. 

Three beer tents will be dispersed around downtown, and the photo tower usually available in the Weirs during Laconia Motorcycle Week will be placed downtown, too. Beer tents will be open until 10 p.m.

“We are ending the evening with a laser show, we were going to do fireworks, but with the drought we are unable to. Also, insurance companies didn’t like the fact that we were so close to other buildings,” Lovisek said. “We are going to do a laser show and it is going to go from the actual pumpkin tower, which is going to be a quite unique experience.”

The laser show begins at 7:50 p.m. and ends at 8:10 p.m. 

For a full schedule, visit laconiapumpkinfestival.com.

“I couldn’t be more proud and I hope you are as well because I think it’s going to be an amazing event,” she said.