Parks & Rec to take over organizing Laconia Pumpkinfest

LACONIA — Pumpkinfest is coming back to Laconia — this time, it’s under new management. 

At the meeting of the city council on Monday night, City Manager Kirk Beattie told councilors the Lakes Region Chamber of Commerce intended not to run the festival this year, and city staff could take it over. Councilors signaled their approval with enthusiasm.

“Just a couple of weeks ago, we were approached by the [Lakes Region] Chamber of Commerce and they said that they had decided that they did not want to move forward with being the organizers for Pumpkinfest, and tried to garner our support to see if we were interested,” Beattie said.

For two weeks leading up to the meeting, Beattie and his staff performed due diligence to determine if the city's running the festival would be fiscally responsible, if they could manage it operationally and if downtown businesses would support the change.

“Fiscally, we looked at the expenses and revenues. As long as we continue with certain sponsorships and those types of positive revenue, we’re going to be fine financially with this,” Beattie said. “Operationally, we know we can handle it — we’ve done it for over 10 years now.”

City staff will create, either in the upcoming budget or as a supplemental budget, a sort of special revenue account, similar to the arrangement for Laconia Motorcycle Week.

“The bigger and best that we can ever find,” Ward 2 Councilor Bob Soucy said. “If we have to dip somewhere else to help, I’m all in favor of it, and I think everybody else is, too. This is a great thing for the city, we’ve been pushing for this for a long time.”

The festival will be rebranded as “Laconia Pumpkin Festival” instead of New Hampshire Pumpkin Festival. 

“We’re rebranding,” Beattie said. “It’s ours, we’re going to rebrand it.”

City management also met with around one-third of downtown businesses owners, who were supportive and interested in taking part in the festival.

“My recommendation is 100% that you guys give me the OK to continue moving on as the host and run Pumpkin Festival,” Beattie said. “My internal committee has been all department heads at this point — Parks & Recreation Director Amy Lovisek has been chairing that.”

And councilors did approve it, unanimously.

There’s a press conference set for 10 a.m. Tuesday at City Hall downtown to kick the effort off. 

“The Chamber has been outstanding with working with us in these last two weeks,” Beattie said. 

Lovisek said Tuesday the committee has been working hard to bring the event to fruition and they’ve even received the assistance of someone intimately familiar with organizing large events: Laconia Motorcycle Week Deputy Director Jennifer Anderson. 

“She has some insights on how to run a big event,” Lovisek said. “She was a great asset.”

Though the committee is small, comprising mostly just city department heads, they’ve already organized subcommittees to handle safety, vendors, sponsors, the website, budgeting and marketing, for example.

“There’s a lot of aspects to this event,” Lovisek said. “Karmen [Gifford, president of the Lakes Region Chamber of Commerce] has been a big help over at the Chamber, just very helpful.”

“We’re basically handing it off,” Gifford said Wednesday afternoon. “We’re excited to work with the city, who’s been our partner for 10 years.”

The Chamber has significant workforce initiatives coming up, aiming to fulfill their mission of supporting area businesses. When in discussions with city staff regarding Pumpkinfest, city leaders offered to take the lead on the event, and Gifford agreed. 

“It takes a village, I feel like we’re all still part of that village,” Gifford said. 

The change in management is something of a watershed moment for the City of Laconia, following several years of uncertainty regarding the event. Lovisek said the city’s rebranding comes complete with a new logo — designed in-house by a “talented” city employee — which will be unveiled at their press conference on April 22.

The day of the press conference, April 22, happens to coincide with Earth Day, and organizers are keenly aware of its significance. They’ll be bringing soil bags with seeds, which will help local school children grow pumpkins for display at the festival.

"We’re going to make enough for all the kids,” she said.

But putting together this event — a major one for the city — within a “very short window” of about six months is no easy task. 

“We’re going to do our absolute best to make it fabulous,” she said. 

Part of making it a festival to remember is getting a larger tower — similar to one on display between around 2015 to 2018 — which stood 30 feet above the crowd. The committee will also keep the festival downtown, but will work to promote other events all around the region, just as the Chamber did. 

“It’s a lot of moving parts,” Lovisek said, noting city staff are “over the moon” about their shot to run Pumpkinfest. 

“I know that this is going to be an amazing event,” she said. 

The date is set from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 25, though hours are subject to change. Organizers are looking for volunteers. Anybody interested in lending a hand should reach out to Lovisek directly at the Parks and Recreation department at City Hall at alovisek@laconianh.gov. Nancy Brown in the City Manager’s office is running point for vendors and can be reached by dialing 603-527-1270.

“We’re going to need volunteers.”