The call about pumpkins came in to the Lakes Region Chamber of Commerce in Laconia early last year.
The voice on the other end had big news about the annual Pumpkin Festival: the long-running tradition, to that point held in Keene for 24 years, would not return there because of rioting in the streets in 2014. That incident caught the attention of the national media, and the phone call caught the attention of three chamber members who happened to be in president Karmen Gifford’s office that day.
“We’ve got to get that,” Chamber board member Allen Voivod remembered saying at the time. “So then Karmen ran with it.”
And she got it, too, with the second edition, the new edition of an event that features more pumpkins than a Charlie Brown special, scheduled for today, from 10 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.
These days, during this time of year, Laconia resident smile like Jack-o’-Lanterns over their good fortune, and Gifford is the face of this. A trip to downtown Laconia on Friday morning told me that as soon as I started asking festival workers where I could find her.
Everyone knew her. Everyone pointed to the general direction in which they had last seen her. And everyone in Laconia, it seemed, was excited to host for the second time an event that gave Keene a black eye two Octobers ago.
“It was a fantastic experience last year, which is why we were happy to take it from Let It Shine,” said Gifford, referring to the former organization that coordinated the event. “We have had good experiences with our community, which knows how to put on big events like Bike Week. Big events are not new to us, and our staff has a big footprint downtown.”
And the city has a big, 34-foot high pumpkin-holding scaffold tower downtown as well. It forms the core for all other pumpkin exhibits. “It’s only three feet shorter than the Green Monster,” Gifford told me.
It’s also 80 miles northeast from its old home. Keene used to be defined, at least in part, by its pumpkin festival, and any connection to it now is for all the wrong reasons.
On the weekend of Oct. 18-19, with college students funneling into the area for a social media-advertised party, rowdiness began about a mile away from the family-oriented activities.
“Essentially it was large parties in the (Keene State) college area, house or yard parties that became disorderly,” Captain Steve Stewart of the Keene Police Department told me by phone. “There was some violent and dangerous behavior in terms of partygoers, students from all over, young people tossing bottles in the air, and there were some injuries resulting, and then from that point it turned into basically a kind of riot situation.”
Families apparently never knew what was happening so close to all those Jack-o’-Lanterns. “They were refusing to leave the streets and blocking streets and ripping up street signs,” Stewart said. “They were throwing whatever they could come up with.”
Then, with more than 100 people arrested and dozens of injuries, came the attention, on a national scale. Photos of a car turned upside down and bonfires in the streets made for eye-catching material.
CNN ran a story and the Boston Globe wrote an editorial stating that overreacting law enforcement officials had to share blame with rowdy students.
Meanwhile, pumpkin seeds had been sown. By a vote of 13-1, the Keene City Council chose not to renew the festival’s license. Councilors said they simply didn’t have the resources to monitor activity outside the main festival area.
The chiefs from the Keene fire and police departments, plus the city manager, all recommended against bringing the festival back for its 25th anniversary last year. Stewart chuckled when I asked for his thoughts on the pumpkins rolling out of town.
Did he want the festival back? Could more planning have changed things in the future?
“I’ll stay out of that one,” Stewart told me. “The city council voted not to bring it back.”
At the time, city councilor David Meade told the Union Leader, “This is a decision we wish we didn’t have to make.”
Officials in Laconia are glad they did.
“Very excited,” said Patrick Clausen, a local businessman who’s on the chamber board of directors. “We’re going through a revitalization, and this is a great infusion for that.”
It’s part of the landscape, an element of community-wide spirit, with school children and sponsors carving pumpkins through the days and weeks leading to today. Last October, on the coldest day of the month, about 35,000 people attended, Gifford said, and she’s hoping for the same number this time.
Gifford also said the New Hampshire Pumpkin Festival has submitted an application to Guinness World Records, hoping to break the record of 30,000 lit Jack-o’-Lanterns displayed three years ago in Keene.
“When people come they realize the enormity of how many pumpkins there really are,” Gifford said.
Friday there was orange everywhere, pumpkins with cat whiskers and friendly smiles and scary smiles. Pumpkins were lined in rows to spell the carvers, with one string reading “Belmont Elementary” on Pumpcanally, a narrow block known as Canal Street during the rest of the year.
And then there’s the boost to the economy. Jim Daubenspeck owns Daub’s Cobbler Shop on Pumpcanally.
“What it does is generate awareness,” Daubenspeck said, in between pounding a boot heel. “It tells people we’re here. Last year for six months, two to three people per week were here because of Pumpkin Fest and they had seen me during Pumpkin Fest.”
Peg Batstone owns Wild Women’s Studio. Her sister flew in from England just to attend Pumpkin Festival last year.
“Very excited about it,” Batstone said. “I asked extra people to be here to work (today). I know people will come. We’re right in the middle of it.”
No one is worried about violence today. They weren’t worried last year, either, when the lone incident was a car being towed for blocking someone’s driveway.
“I don’t think we had a single incident related to Pumpkin Festival,” Laconia police Chief Chris Adams said. “This year they’re expecting a little bigger crowd, but we feel like we’re prepared, but we’re not anticipating any issues whatsoever.”
Batstone called the festival a “coup for Laconia.”
And Daubenspeck expressed Keene’s loss and Laconia’s gain this way:
“From what I understand a group of young people were having way too much fun. It’s a great way to cause trouble. It was dark out, they were drinking and they were having a good time. . .
“. . . And then we got the Pumpkin Festival.”