Pumpkin Mountain at PumpkinFest 2019. Photo by Brent Martin.
by SARAH THOMACK
St. Joseph Post
It’s estimated around 25,000 people attended PumpkinFest over the weekend in St. Joseph.
PumpkinFest celebrated 23 years and Pony Express Museum Executive Director Cindy Daffron says several community members are involved each year to help put on the festival.
“If it wasn’t for the community support, I tell a lot of people, we got an award for PumpkinFest and that’s a huge honor for us, but the pride, it belongs to the community, it belongs to the people who helped us every inch of the way.”
PumpkinFest was named in Country Living magazine this year as one of the 29 Best Halloween Festivals.
The festival not only includes the lighting of Pumpkin Mountain, but other activities are offered throughout the weekend including music, storytelling and more. Daffron says several people who attended this year mentioned how much they appreciate the free festival.
“The petting zoo even told me that people told them how appreciative they were to see the animals and do things,” Daffron says. “Anytime I ask a vendor, they said the weekend went well and the overwhelming thing that just kept coming back to all of us, even food vendors, was that people thanked them for being there and in my 15 years, that’s a first. It’s a good feeling, to me, to know that it means something to people.”
Daffron says planning for next year’s PumpkinFest will start in a couple months and they are already thinking about what they could do for the 25th year in 2021.
Edit: Daffron says the festival typically attracts 20,000-25,000 visitors each year and the rough estimate of 25,000 is based on vendor sales and other factors.