LACONIA — Ruth Sterling of Sterling Design & Communications, who has managed the annual Keene Pumpkin Festival in partnership with Let It Shine, Inc., will announce plans for the 2015 festival today, Friday, April 24, at a press conference at the railroad station in Veterans Square, beginning at 1 p.m.
Earlier this month the Keene City Council voted 13 to 1 to deny Let It Shine, Inc. a license to hold the event in the city this year after rioting near the campus of Keene State College coincided with the festival and overwhelmed local law enforcement agencies last October.
More than a dozen cities and towns in New Hampshire and Massachusetts, including Laconia, have expressed interest in hosting the festival in 2015.
During an interview with The Daily Sun on April 16, Sterling said it appeared "all roads lead to Laconia" in terms of where the festival might relocate to and credited Laconia Motorcycle Week Executive Director Charlie St. Clair as the reason. She recalled that her relationship with Laconia began as the Keene City Council debated the future of the event and St. Clair traveled to Keene to speak on behalf of that city keeping the festival.
Sterling had made no public statements about the festival since that interview.
More than 30,000 pumpkins were on display at the one-day Keene Festival last October.
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