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The smashing success of Pumpkin Festival

It’s been 15 years since the first giant pumpkin fell from the sky at Blue Grass Nursery, Sod and Garden Centre.
Pumpkin destruction
Blue Grass Nursery, Sod and Garden Centre’s annual Pumpkin Festival is celebrating 15 years. The highlight of the event is the grande finale giant pumpkin smash.

It’s been 15 years since the first giant pumpkin fell from the sky at Blue Grass Nursery, Sod and Garden Centre. The annual Pumpkin Festival fundraiser in support of the Alberta Children’s Hospital Foundation (ACHF) celebrates its 15th anniversary Oct. 7 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. “[The first Pumpkin Festival] was way different from today. It started out 15 years ago as a way to give back to the community,” said Lisa Silva, Blue Grass marketing manager. “It’s an incredible event compared to what it used to be.” The family-fun festival’s first event was much smaller than current iterations, with just 1,200 people in attendance and $1,800 raised for then-charity-of-choice STARS Air Ambulance. More recently, the event has attracted 5,500 people in its top attendance year, and the top fundraising year brought in just shy of $40,000 for ACHF. “I don’t know how we make it any bigger,” Silva said. “We are starting to run out of space.” More activities can be added to the event, but Silva’s main concern is parking and how Blue Grass can accommodate the growing number of attendees. This year, parking will be located at the New Horizon Mall and visitors will be bussed to Blue Grass. According to Silva, the Blue Grass season used to end in October, and the event was a way for the store to say thank you and to raise funds for a worthy cause. The desire to give back remains the focus on Pumpkin Festival, with almost $260,000 raised for ACHF throughout the years – the charity became the event’s charity of choice after that first year. The festival is a favourite for many, growing to include free activities such as face painting, hay rides, the Cinderella coach ride, a petting zoo, pumpkin carving, a food truck parade, a Rainbow Play System raffle and much more. However, the highlight is the grand finale pumpkin smash, where a gigantic, 500-plus-pound pumpkin, is hoisted high into the air by a crane, to be released with a bang as it crashes down on a vehicle below, crushing the vehicle and smashing the pumpkin to smithereens. Of course, all this pumpkin carnage would not be complete without the blast of fireworks that goes off when the pumpkin hits the vehicle. This year's pumpkin was well on its way to becoming a record holder for weight at an impressive 2,255 pounds, but tragedy struck when the mammoth gourd split as grower Eddy Zaychkowsky went to harvest the beast. The split disqualified the pumpkin from the title of world’s heaviest, which remains the 2,624.6-pound behemoth grown in Germany in 2016. “It’s insane,” Silva said of the size of this year’s pumpkin. She said Zaychkowsky has been a part of Pumpkin Festival since its inception. “[Fifteen years ago] Eddy approached us and said, ‘I have this idea that might be a good fit for you guys,” Silva said, adding the nursery was already working on a fall event and the acreage owner with a passion for pumpkins had the perfect suggestion. Growers of giant pumpkins take their efforts very seriously, according to Silva. “It’s like a sport, almost,” she said. The seeds of the gargantuan gourd will be removed prior to the drop, but there is still plenty of pumpkin left to make a huge splat as it come crashing down. As delightful as it is to see the pumpkin destruction, Silva said, the focus of the event remains raising funds for ACHF. Blue Grass recommends a donation of $5 per person. “Donations are really what make the event successful,“ she said. “Though the event is free, we do encourage donations to the ACHF. It’s a very worthy charity.” For more information, visit bluegrassnursery.com

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