Collector Village Pumpkin Festival

Giant Pumpkin Weigh-In. If you have a giant to enter…
On Saturday 4th May bring it to Collector Memorial Hall between 2pm and 4pm.

If you can bring it on a pallet like the baby pumpkin shown in the picture that will help with weighing, loading and unloading.

Cost of entry is $5 for the open section and $2 for the junior section.

Pumpkins can be collected after 4pm Sunday 5th May. (Festival Day)

Unless prior arrangements are made, any left over pumpkins after Tuesday will be removed and used as stock feed.

We have two fantastic “on-the-day” events for you to consider.

The wonder of live scone baking on the stage.

The joy of dressing up to look like a pumpkin.

For each, $50 1st prize, $30 2nd prize and $20 3rd prize.

For details see the attached pdf’s…

CVPF Scone Bake 2013

CVPF Pumpkin Lookalike 2013

The festival committee is very excited that there will be a modified layout for this year’s festival.  We have more stalls and attractions than ever. To accommodate our 100 stall holders we have changed the position of the main stage and freed up more space.

See the map linked below.  Also, allocations to stallholders appear in the pdf below the map .

CVPF 2013 MAP 06042013

CVPF Stall Map 2013

We are extremely pleased with the local and broader support we have received this year.

In the attached PDF is a full run down of our competitions, their sponsors and the prizes on offer.

Competition List & Prize Money 2013

Are you into live music???

Come to our Pumpkin Festival Supper Dance

Acacia Suitcase (local Canberra band) will be raising the rafters at Collector Memorial Hall on Saturday 23rd March.  8pm till 11.30pm. $10 a head.

Bookings essential.

BYO beverage and a plate of finger food to share.

All proceeds after the band is covered will go to charity.

For tickets and enquiries, contact info@pumpkinfestival.com.au

See you there….

It has been a good year for the Collector Memorial Hall.  Having just celebrated 60 years as the focal point of the local community, the committee was very pleased to receive a cheque for $10,000 from the 2012 Collector Village Pumpkin Festival committee.

The funding is part of the commitment by the Pumpkin Festival committee to raise funds for local projects.  “Last year we were able to donate $10,000 to the Collector Oval redevelopment project and it is wonderful that we are able to contribute the same amount to the Collector Memorial Hall this year,” said Pumpkin Festival Coordinator Gary Poile.

President of the Collector Memorial Hall Committee, Kathleen Webster accepted the funds on behalf of the committee.  “The funds will be put towards maintenance and renovations,” she said. The Collector Memorial Hall was constructed in 1952 and stands on the site of an earlier community Hall that is believed to have been built in the 1890’s.  “During the 1950’s and 60’s the Collector Memorial Hall was famous for holding the best dances in the district,” Kathleen said.  “Since then, the building has become the centre of the community and has been used for everything from wedding receptions and birthday parties to preschool and day care services.  But the biggest day of the year is definitely the first Sunday in May when we have the Pumpkin Festival”.

The annual Pumpkin Festival was first held at the Collector Memorial Hall in 2003.  Since then it has expanded rapidly and now takes up a large part of the village surrounding the Hall and nearby Catholic and Anglican Churches.  The festival has created its own kind of magic and a reputation as a perfect event for families with loads of fun, great food, entertainment and rows of colourful market stalls.

The next Collector Village Pumpkin Festival will be on Sunday May 5 2013 and promises to be the biggest event yet as organisers plan to celebrate the festivals ten year anniversary.

Goulburn Pipes and Drums Band lead the parade along Bourke Street to the Collector
Memorial Hall for the opening of the 2012 Collector Village Pumpkin Festival held last May.

View the Timelaps of the 2012 Pumpkin Festival on YouTube.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrimWs_5W7E

The Collector Village will be celebrating ten years of its famous Pumpkin Festival on Sunday May 5 2013 and is pleased to announce that ten percent of the gate takings will be donated directly to the Gunning and District Community Health Service.

Since its inception in 2003 as a small community event the Pumpkin Festival has grown into one of the largest harvest festivals in the country.  On Pumpkin Festival day, the village of Collector is filled to the brim with giant pumpkins, amazing scarecrows and rows of colourful stalls selling great food and everything from local produce to wonderful treasures from around the world.

With the growth in the festival has come the opportunity for organisers to build community partnerships that will benefit organisations throughout the district.  The contribution of funds to the Gunning and District Community Health Service has come as a result of an offer by volunteers from Gunning to assist with the annual event.

With additional volunteers on board, the Pumpkin Festival committee intends to make the tenth annual festival the biggest one yet.  “We are pulling out all the stops this year to mark this significant milestone”, Pumpkin Festival Coordinator; Gary Poile said.  “Now that we have some extra help, we will be able to expand our festival to cater for the expected growth in visitor numbers”, he said.

Already, the committee has been inundated by requests from potential stallholders for sites at the 2013 festival and extra space will be opened up to cater for as many as possible.  The festival will also feature a great line up of new entertainment acts, a new “Expo Marquee”, a huge display of classic cars and a doubling in the size of the pumpkin exhibition marquee.

Regular visitors to the Pumpkin Festival will be pleased that the main stage will be relocated to take advantage of the natural amphitheatre in the Church Yard and provide more space for them to relax and enjoy the entertainment.  This will free up the area adjacent to “Pumpkin Square” for the new Expo Marquee that will show case displays by the festival’s partners.  “We still have a lot of work to do, but the plans are coming together nicely and the committee is very excited at the prospect of breaking all the records next May,” said Poile.

More pumpkins than ever are expected for the tenth anniversary of the
Collector Village Pumpkin festival; Sunday May 5th 2013.

We were able to distribute over 100 seeds to interested parties.

The time for seed planting is past and we hope that your festival winning pumpkin is progressing well.

Seeds will be available for sale at the information desk (in readiness for planting next Spring) at this years festival.

HAPPY GROWING.

Spring is here and it’s time to start growing pumpkins for the 2013 Collector Village Pumpkin Festival competitions.

Over $2000 in prize money will be up for grabs on Sunday 5^th May 2013 when the village of Collector hosts the 10^th annual Pumpkin Festival.

To encourage participation, the organising committee gave away over 100 seedlings this Sunday morning at the Pancake Breakfast.  The Pancake Breakfast is an annual event held at the Collector Memorial Hall on the last Sunday in October.  It coincides with Halloween and for pumpkin growers is the equivalent of the starter’s gun at the beginning of a marathon.  Growers will have the next six months to lovingly tend their vines and hopefully produce a bountiful harvest for the autumn festival.

MISSED OUT??

Never fear, if you would like your very own Giant Atlantic or Carving Pumpkin seedling send us a message on facebook or call our president on 0423 672 153.

Happy Harvest.