Pumpkin Festival will return

Acorn Staff Writer


Watch out! Thirty tons of pumpkins are coming to Calabasas this October.


After canceling last year’s 10th annual Calabasas Pumpkin Festival, the Calabasas Chamber of Commerce announced last week at the city council meeting that the festival is back.


It was cancelled last year because coordinators couldn’t raise enough money, according to Calabasas Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Carol Washburn in an interview. But this year, the economy seems stronger, she said, and the festival will celebrate a belated 10th anniversary this fall.


"We have strong interests from the businesses in the area to become sponsors," Washburn said. "We also have a great deal—this never stopped—of nonprofit organizations and charities who come out and help us those two days to run it as volunteers."


The event, which brings families and other groups together, will be from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Oct. 19 and 20 at Paramount Ranch, off Kanan Road, south of the 101 Freeway in the Santa Monica Mountains.


For nine years, Paramount Ranch has been the site of the Pumpkin Festival. But it originally started in the 1970s and took place in Old Calabasas.


Historians say the name Calabasas comes from the Spanish word "calabaza" meaning pumpkin, squash or gourd. So why not celebrate with a Pumpkin Festival?


"It’s going to be a family fun festival weekend with festival food, pumpkins for families to be able to purchase and take home, four stages of live entertainment… pumpkin bowling, face painting, pumpkin pie eating—those things we’ll be bringing back again," Washburn said.


The festival will transport visitors to another world, officials said. Paramount Ranch resembles a small town from a western movie set. It was the site of many scenes from the TV show "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman." Throughout its old wooden buildings, dusty roads, and in the surrounding meadows and under oak trees many Pumpkin Festival activities and hands-on arts and crafts are being planned.


And this year, according to Calabasas Chamber of Commerce Chairwoman of the Board Lilianne Chaumant, the pumpkins in the festival will share the limelight with good old red, white and blue American pride.


But nothing is set in stone just yet, Washburn said. Festival organizers have been working for only a couple of months, she said. The early work has focused on getting permits for Paramount Ranch and organizing sponsors.


The city of Calabasas approved a $25,000 expenditure during its meeting last week to help sponsor the Pumpkin Festival.


The $50,000 title sponsor is still available, Chaumant said at the city council meeting.


Chaumant was happy to announce the return of the Pumpkin Festival to the Calabasas City Council. Many people, she said, are happy it’s back.


"It’s become not only an activity for Calabasas," Washburn said, "but for the whole region. We have people coming near and wide that are interested in this because it has become such a signature landmark activity.


"I think what we missed last year and why we’re looking so forward to it again this year is the rewards the community gets from volunteering their time in such a remarkable event that everybody enjoys so much," Washburn said. "They really missed it last year."


For more information, call (818) 225-2227 or log onto www.pumpkin-festival.com.





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