Oct 14, 2017 2 min read

HOUSTON – Organizers stopped featuring a giant pumpkin at a fall festival in Houston for a good reason.

After four days of sitting in the sun, the giant gourds at the Houston Pumpkin Festival would start to become squashy, a local fire official said.

“The hardest part wasn’t getting it in here, it was getting it out of here,” said Chad Roberts, president of Houston Volunteer Fire Department, the host of the annual event.

That didn’t stop many small-to-large pumpkins from taking center stage at the three-day festival as the fire department sold two crates of them by Saturday afternoon. Another crate of pumpkins from Shillings Hill Farm in Chartiers Township was being gobbled up in the festival’s section for children, where the kids were busy decorating before taking them home.

“They’ll all go,” said Shelly Lewis, a member of the festival committee.

She said vendors expressed opinions Friday that the day drew nearly 10,000 to the festival, which also features live music. Roberts said it wouldn’t surprise him if the festival drew as many as 50,000 people Saturday because of the sunny, unusually warm weather and morning parade, where people stood on sidewalks five deep to watch it go by them.

“Yesterday was our best day in years for a Friday,” Lewis said.

The festival, which is in its 34th year, began as a way to entertain children. Buzzy Meddings, who once sold produce in the downtown, convinced the mayor to embrace the idea more than three decades ago and it has since grown to raise nearly 80 percent of the fire department’s annual budget.

There are bounce houses for the children and food vendors selling typical festival items such as kettle corn, chicken on a stick and deep-fried Oreo cookies. Lewis said she was excited to attract an Asian wrap maker to the festival from New York for the first time.

The festival continues today at the Houston American Legion Post 902 picnic grounds at 124 W. Pike St.