Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

First Annual Great Pumpkin Festival hits Prescott Saturday with day of fun

Is everyone ready for a pumpkin good time?

Well, ready or not, the first annual Great Pumpkin Festival will be this Saturday, Oct. 26.

Prescott's Elm Street will be blocked off for the day-long event, which starts at 7 a.m. with the Pumpkin Pancake Breakfast at the Whistlin' Gopher. The breakfast will end at 9 o'clock, but the Gopher is scheduled to remain open throughout the day.

All booths will open at 10 a.m., with all games starting and contest entries due by this time as well. The contests include pumpkin carving, pumping decorating, scarecrow, the chili cook-off and the pumpkin cooking contest (desserts only).

Judging will take place at 10:30 a.m.

Patrons will be able to get chili from the contest from 11:15 a.m. until 1 p.m., or until the chili is gone, with the winner announced at 1:30.

The beautiful baby picture contest will occur at 10:30 a.m., with all photos needing to be turned in before this time.

Karen Richards, festival chairman, said those who plan on entering their home or business in the decorating contest must do so by 5 p.m. Oct. 24, with judging to be done on Oct. 25.

The games, Richards said, are family oriented, and will feature such favorites as basketball shooting, football throwing, baseball throwing, a pumpkin pond (a duck pond using pumpkins), cake walk, and paint ball shoot, which is sponsored by the Curley Wolf football team.

Other activities include a booth with Curley Wolf items through the Prescott Athletic Booster Club, arts and crafts, custom embroidery work, a booth featuring nutritional supplements, deer hunting items, a used book sale by the Friends of the Library, cotton candy, candles and the Artesian Arts League sponsoring a coloring page for the youngsters.

Along with this, the Arts League will be telling scary stories and spooky jokes throughout the day.

Currently, the PABC is selling pumpkins at Seasons, next to the Sonic, to raise money for the athletic program and club events.

The day's fun ends with a series of wrestling matches at the Prescott Athletic Complex featuring Legends of Mid-South Wrestling.

The main event will be Slam Shady vs. Kamala the Ugandan Giant with Gen. Skandar Akbar.

There will be a grudge match between Action Jackson and Iceman King Parsons, and a woman's match with Monica Dollar taking on Zoe.

Other grapplers scheduled to appear include All American Jerry Young, the No. 1 Bad Boys, American Anarchy, the Masked Italiano and Mark Fury, along with others.

The doors open at 7 p.m., with the matches to start at 8 o'clock.

Wrestlers will be mingling with the crowd throughout the day, signing autographs and selling their memorabilia.

Tickets can be purchased at Seasons, Baker's Best Stop, the Bank of Prescott and any member of the PABC.