Requests Bring Town Pumpkin Festival Back

Requests Bring Town Pumpkin Festival Back 

Joseph Benavidez
News Staff Writer

TEMPLETON - The 1st Annual Pumpkin Festival featuring craved pumpkins, fortune telling, spooky games, an open house of the Narragansett Historical Society museum and activities for all ages, attracted hundreds of attendees from the Greater Gardner area.

“It’s a great, great way to bring all of the family together,” Templeton resident Erin Mackay said. “It’s nice to have a pumpkin festival so local.”

Society President Brian Tanguay explained that when Templeton celebrated its 250th year, the town held a pumpkin festival. Over the past couple of months, residents have been asking the society if the tradition would continue in October of this year.

“We decided that with so many people asking,” Mr. Tanguay said. “We’d be happy to host a pumpkin festival — it’s a good community event.” 

News Staff Photo by JOSEPH BENAVIDEZ

There were nearly 70 carved pumpkins in various stylings from Vincent Von Gogh’s ‘The Starry Night,’ a homage to Disney’s “The Little Mermaid,” a minion from “Despicable Me,” to spooky faces and a few scary sayings.

Templeton resident Amanda Walsh, 18, won first place for her ‘Weird Face Guy’ pumpkin. She said she was looking at tattoo designs when she was inspired to carve a demon-looking man with angry swirls for eyes with his teeth clenched in a show of dominance.

The pumpkin took hours to finish.

“Honestly,” Amanda said, “This is the best thing — I’ve never won something like this before.”

Templeton teens Conner Whittle, 16, and Kris Gallant, 17, were enthralled with the designs saying the pumpkins were “cool” and “so realistic.”

“This is awesome,” Conner said. “I didn’t know people around here had that kind of talent.”

Kris said he hoped town residents were able to visit the festival. He said it would be a shame if someone did not have a chance to see “all of the cool things here.”

Planned activities included pumpkin bowling where residents attempted to knock down squash plants with vampire faces.

Ten-year-old Kyrah Kodys bowled a spare on first attempt.

She said she has never been to a pumpkin festival before and was happy there was one in her town.

“I just aimed straight,” she said. “It’s really fun and I want to come next year.”

Mr. Tanguay said the society will “definitely” host another fair next year and ended the evening by inviting residents to attend the annual Winter Festival on Dec. 7.