Keene Pumpkin Festival, slated for October, postponed a year
Aug. 5—The Keene Pumpkin Festival's return will be delayed another year.
Two key members of Let It Shine, the organization behind the festival, had to step down suddenly for personal reasons, according to a news release Thursday from the organization's board. The event had been slated for Saturday, Oct. 22.
"This festival means too much to us to give the city an event we're not completely proud of, and the board did not feel with the few short months remaining before October that we could reasonably create the festival we want for Keene," the release said.
The festival was last held in 2019. The 2020 festival was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and in September of that year, board members of Let It Shine announced they were ready to pass the torch to other community members.
Afterward, a new group of volunteers joined Let It Shine, with plans to restart and revitalize the festival in 2022. The City Council approved a request from organizers in April to use city property for the revamped festival this October.
The pumpkin festivals of recent years have been scaled down from the years where pumpkins and crowds dominated most of the downtown. The festival first began as a small community event in 1991.
In 2014, parties outside the festival escalated to rioting, resulting in vandalism, injuries and dozens of arrests.
The next year, the City Council voted not to grant Let It Shine a license to hold the event that October.
Smaller pumpkin festivals returned to Keene in 2017.
Board members said Thursday they plan to still mark the fall season on the date of what would have been this year's festival.
"We will still be coordinating with downtown businesses to celebrate the season on October 22, but there will be no street closures, and the larger-scale festival and its tower will have to wait until next year to rise again," the release said.
Anyone interested in joining the Let It Shine board or helping to plan the 2023 festival can email KeenePumpkinFest@gmail.com or message the organization's Facebook page at www.facebook.com/keenepumpkinfestival
