New Hampshire Pumpkin Festival

New Hampshire Pumpkin Festival
A few of the tens of thousands of pumpkins on display at the 2000 Keene Pumpkin Festival
Genre	Autumn, Halloween, pumpkin lighting
Frequency	Last Saturday of October
Location(s)	Keene, New Hampshire, United States (1991–2014) Laconia, New Hampshire, United States (2015–)
Inaugurated	1991 (1991)
Founder	Nancy Sporborg
Previous event	October 22, 2016
Next event	October 13, 2017
Attendance	80,000 (2006)
Organized by	Center Stage Cheshire County (1991–2010) Let it Shine, Inc. (since 2011)
Sponsor	Zippo Manufacturing Company
Website
pumpkinfestival.org

The New Hampshire Pumpkin Festival, officially the Let it Shine! Pumpkin Festival (also known as the Keene Pumpkin Festival from 1991 to 2014, and the Laconia Pumpkin Festival in 2015; often referred to as Pumpkin Fest), is a yearly celebration that was previously held in Keene, New Hampshire, United States before Halloween. Each year, New Hampshire residents and citizens attempt to amass the largest number of lit jack-o'-lanterns in one place, trying to meet or beat the world record (which the city of Keene held for many years). After college students in Keene rioted during the 2014 festival, and the Keene City Council rejected the festival's annual permit for the following year,Laconia hosted the festival in 2015, and has been the festival's host city since.

For the first decade of its existence, the Keene Pumpkin Festival regularly set the record for the most lit jack-o'-lanterns, culminating in the figure (as recognized by the Guinness World Records) of 28,952 lit jack-o'-lanterns on October 25, 2003, but this was broken when Boston, Massachusetts, collected 30,128 on October 21, 2006. Keene took the record back with a total of 30,581 on October 19, 2013.

The organizers attempt yearly to beat the record by encouraging businesses, organizations, schools and individuals to create and donate jack-o'-lanterns which are displayed on many enormous banks of shelves and all available surfaces around the center of town. The festivities also include fireworks, music, and food, and draw in people from all over New Hampshire and adjoining states. Almost immediately after the festival is over, the pumpkins are hauled away by volunteer work crews and given to pig farmers, to use as food.

The event is held on a Saturday in mid-to-late-October. Keene Pumpkin Festival 2009 was held on Saturday, October 17, and an estimated 70,000 people attended the event. The official total, announced on October 21, was 29,762 pumpkins, a new Keene record, but not enough to beat the world record. The largest ever crowd to attend the event was in 2006, which drew an estimated 80,000 people from around the world to downtown Keene. By comparison, the population of Keene is nearly 23,000.