Pumpkins set to be a smash hit at annual Kalgan Pumpkin Festival

Pumpkins around the region have had hours of love poured into them in the lead-up to Kalgan Pumpkin Festival this weekend.

Organised by the Lower Kalgan Community Association, the annual pumpkin competition has been running for almost a decade, even surviving the pandemic with a virtual weigh-in last year.

Co-ordinator Stacey Murnane said it had been a tough year for giant pumpkin growers. “Our growers all swear to secrecy their individual methods but I’ve heard that they love a lot of water and manure to get to the sizes we see on the day,” she said. “I have it on good authority that in the early days of the event some very special seeds were imported and some growers are still growing from stock of this particular pumpkin nearly a decade on.”

The pumpkins are judged on weight on the day, with last year’s open division winner tipping the scales at a whopping 292kg.

Ms Murnane said the day was much more than a pumpkin competition, with markets, a band, a pumpkin soup competition and a kitchen crammed with pumpkin scones for sale. The festival will run from 9am to noon on Saturday.