05.06
Sunday 4 May 2008 saw my wife and I explore the great Collector Pumpkin Festival. While I have attended many festivals in my time I was a “pumpkin festival” debutante. That said, as my other half “loves” her pumpkins we opted to take the car just in case we ended up purchasing some things.
Firstly the location was Collector, about 30 minutes drive North-East of Canberra, the capital of the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). Collector is normally a small town with a population of 150. After chatting to a few locals I learnt when the festival in 2006 attracted over 6,000 attendees. As we had some difficulty securing a parking spot due to the large number of vehicles (we ended up parking about 10 minute walk away on the main road leading into Collector), I have the feeling the 6,000 number would have been surpassed in 2008. I never knew the humble pumpkin had such pulling power!
The first port of call once getting into collector for us was to view the scare crow competition which had quite an impressive arrangement. We did not ask whether there was a theme for the displays, and perhaps that explains the range of scare crows on display.
Our next task was to navigate through the displays on offer. While we disagreed whether the jumping castle being used was a turtle or a frog, the air-brush art being used for face painting was impressive as too was the queue of people leading up to the Turkish food tent!
Next it was the classic cars display. I admire people who are able to keep classics such as these on the road. After seeing this car I was keeping a look out for 101 Dalmatians! Moving onto the collection of working engines on display, one was left with the impression the noise and vibration you felt would have quite serious health implications if you were left to deal with machines such as those day in – day out!
Once finished with the mechanical displays, we moved onto the tent providing and area for the local area retailers to show (and sell) their wares. While we ended up buying a nice scarf, certainly there was an impressive range of goods. Having taken care of shopping and a quick break for lunch we moved onto displays of the festival draw card, the pumpkins! First call was a display of some art pieces. I quite liked the model of the chicken 
Then it was onto what I thought was the tent for pumpkin carvings. It was that, and much more! It was the home of the large, the small, and the creative pumpkin! The largest pumpkin was 122 kg’s and bright orange; certainly a pumpkin you wouldn’t have any trouble finding in your garden. The smallest pumpkins arranged on a table nearby certainly put the large pumpkin in perspective. Later, on a TV interview, the owner of the largest pumpkin noted it would be kept in Collector and used as feed. Looking at the smallest pumpkins I thought about my own vegetable patch. Having certainly grown a number of pumpkins of similar size there is hope for me yet!
Finally, it was time to view the carvings. Each of the pieces were certainly original. I certainly cannot picture myself spending the time to get the carvings right, and I wonder how many pumpkins were sacrificed in order to get the final carving that were on display. All in all, the Collector pumpkin festival was an enjoyable one. I look forward to 2009!
