Pumpkin Fest organizers looking forward with plans to expand next year's event

LACONIA — Business owners from across the Lakes Region came together Thursday at the Lakeport Opera House to learn more about the recently-revived New Hampshire Pumpkin Festival, and its plans for the future.

The Daily Sun, Lakeport Opera House, the Lakes Region Chamber of Commerce and the Sunshine Initiative sponsored the event, in an effort to bring what Mayor Andrew Hosmer called “movers and shakers” together. 

The two-hour event featured entertainment by Brian and Jami Duprey, professional Frank Sinatra and Marilyn Monroe tribute performers from Las Vegas, while Belmont High School student Kyle Dumais played piano. 

During intermission, Chamber President Karmen Gifford gave a presentation to highlight scheduled activities for this year’s festival, as well as plans for expansion. 

“We felt it was important collaboratively to get everyone together that we felt were leaders in the community, influencers and people that could go out and really help us to grow this,” Gifford said. “What we’re looking to do today is to imagine what Pumpkin Fest could do to our economy.”

The state is projecting 4.3 million visitors spending $2 billion in 2022, according to data from the New Hampshire Department of Tourism.

“We feel that really is an opportunity here in our region that we could be really focusing on,” Gifford said, after sharing the data during the event.

“An estimated 65% of Americans celebrate or participate in some type of Halloween activities, and we know they spend a boatload of money on the holiday — $10.14 billion, to be exact,” said Chamber Board Chair Chris Dickinson.

Dave Henrick, owner of Lakeside Pizza and the 405 Pub & Grill, took the stage to highlight the importance of the event and rally fellow business owners around the cause.

“It means being involved in your community, connected to your community,” Henrick said. “Laconia, the Lakes Region, has so much to offer the world. Let’s invite them here. Let’s make it a world-class event.”

Henrick recalled his first Pumpkin Fest, when he sold pizzas from a 6-foot table. “I stood there all day long and sold 250 pizzas,” Henrick said. “The next year we got involved even more because of our event business. We were fortunate enough to put together a beer garden tent. What a success. Boy, does this community love to drink.”

The road to the festival has been rocky this year. Initially, Gifford called it off due to a lack of financial resources, community interest and volunteers. Public outrage over the cancellation pushed Gifford to reinstate the event, albeit with cutbacks after failing to reach its July 1 fundraising goal of $50,000.

This year’s festival will be one day only, and will not feature a pumpkin tower. Gifford explained that the logistics of setting up and breaking down the structure in one day wasn’t very practical or feasible.

However, Gifford and Dickinson are hoping that next year’s festival will be more robust, especially if the local business community rallies behind them. 

“Tonight is not about donations or checks,” Gifford said. “Tonight is about community engagement. Tonight is about getting people convinced, getting them collaborating, getting them to realize that we need to think bigger and that we can do bigger things together.”

Although the tower won’t be part of the picture this year, Gifford added that its absence will allow Main Street to remain open, with a majority of the festival taking place on Beacon and Canal streets, along with the City Hall parking lot. 

“There are events that can be spread out, they don’t have to just be downtown,” Gifford said. “But they’re going to spotlight our businesses and nonprofits and communities across the region.”

“Pumpkin Fest has proven in this community that it can be extremely successful,” Henrick said. “Not only is it an event for the fall, it can also be a catalyst to move forward and plan other events in our community that can reach the summer, or events during wintertime. I challenge each and every one of you in the room to come together, focus and help put more events on in this community to bring more people here. Let’s just come together.”

If the Chamber of Commerce can garner the support, and if this year’s festival proves to be financially successful, Gifford has big plans to take it to the next level. 

“Next year we’re looking to go three days instead of one, most likely we’ll be moving it to the Weirs but still incorporate downtown Laconia,” Gifford said. “There are people here tonight from Meredith, there are people here from Franklin, they’re here from Bristol. We have lots of venues like the Lakeport Opera House and a lot of them are doing things, so there’s a lot of events that are going to take place no matter what in downtown.”