The 25th edition of the annual Hartsburg Pumpkin Festival added on another attendance record as a crowd of 40,000 people packed into town on Saturday.

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Besides the draw of big pumpkins from multiple pumpkin patches, more than 160 vendors displayed their goods, cooked tasty foods and had plenty of activities for all ages.

The two-day total for this year’s festival was 55,000 – which festival committee vice president Donna Hilgedick said might have been due to the good weather – on both days.

“It was a little lighter crowd on Sunday,” Hilgedick said, “which might have been due to the good weather as much as the record crowd was due to good weather on Saturday.”

Either way – festival organizers were pleased, vendors were pleased and attendees came away with some mighty big pumpkins.

For the first time, the Pumpkin Festival had its own “cutest baby” contest with winners in different age categories.

Newborn Lucy Ann Martin, daughter of Kelly and Nick Martin, of Ashland, won the first title – cutest “pumpkin” in the 0-12 months age category.

“We were very surprised at the number of entries,” Hilgedick said. “We had 39 infants and the total entered was 75.”

~ Find out more in today’s Journal ~

By Bruce Wallace