Packed with jack-o-lanterns, the zig-zag exhibit in Veterans Square was a popular attraction on Saturday during the New Hampshire Pumpkin Festival in Laconia.
Packed with jack-o-lanterns, the zig-zag exhibit in Veterans Square was a popular attraction on Saturday during the New Hampshire Pumpkin Festival in Laconia.
Packed with jack-o-lanterns, the zig-zag exhibit in Veterans Square was a popular attraction on Saturday during the New Hampshire Pumpkin Festival in Laconia.
Packed with jack-o-lanterns, the zig-zag exhibit in Veterans Square was a popular attraction on Saturday during the New Hampshire Pumpkin Festival in Laconia.
John Koziol/union leader correspondent
A giant scarecrow in Veterans Square was a popular backdrop on Saturday for photo-taking visitors.
LACONIA — To the delight of organizers, the New Hampshire Pumpkin Festival, successor to the Keene Pumpkin Festival, is hitting its stride, attracting thousands of people to the downtown this past weekend.
Held Friday and Saturday, the NH Pumpkin Festival was put on by the Laconia-based Lakes Region Chamber of Commerce.
Following off-campus riots in 2014 by Keene State College students and their guests, near the Keene Pumpkin Festival, the Keene City Council denied the permits needed for the 2015 event.
Hearing of that development, Charlie St. Clair, the longtime executive director of Laconia Motorcycle Week, worked to bring the festival to Laconia for what was its 25th anniversary.
In its inaugural year in the City on the Lakes, the festival attempted, but did not succeed, in setting the world record for the most lit jack-o-lanterns that had been established at the Keene festival in 2013.
The Laconia festival carried on, though, but was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and also in 2021 due to what the Chamber said was a lack of volunteers and funds.
The following year, the festival was poised for another cancellation when the community rallied to prevent that from happening.
For 2023, organizers hoped to bring back the 34-foot tall tower that in past years had displayed up to 2,000 jack-o-lanterns, but that effort failed when a GoFundMe campaign raised only $1,460 of the $10,000 needed.
The Chamber then went with Plan B, installing what it billed as “an all new Reimagined Zig Zag Exhibit & More” in Veterans Square. The multi-level zig-zag exhibit was packed with jack-o-lanterns and drew lots of curious visitors.
Among them was Josh Jang and Seong-Yeon Song, who made the trip up to Laconia on Saturday from Merrimack.
A third year student at the University of New Hampshire Franklin Pierce School of Law, Jang said he saw a documentary about the setting of the lit jack-o-lanterns record and initially believed it had been set in Laconia, not Keene.
Nonetheless, he and Song decided to come to Laconia, adding they were very pleased with what they found there, including the zig-zag exhibit and “a lot of vendors,” many of whom were set up in the City Hall parking lot on nearby Beacon Street East.
“I think it’s great, so far,” Jang said of the festival. “I just like the vibe, the festival vibe. It has a friendly, warm feeling to it.”
Stefanie Bolduc, who came to the festival dressed as a black-widow witch, while her spouse, Nate, was dressed as a warlock, said the event — her third — was a blast. She especially enjoyed dancing up a storm with The Wicked Witches of the Lakes Region.
A native of Keene who now lives in Belmont, Bolduc said she had regularly attended the Keene festival, which she recalled had “a lot more pumpkins, a lot more people” than Laconia.
But Laconia “is more family friendly,” she said.
Asked if she plans to come for the 2024 New Hampshire Pumpkin Festival, Bolduc gave a one-word reply: “Absolutely.”
