The Circleville Pumpkin Show is an annual event that takes place in mid-October in Ohio each year and attracts over 300,000 people each year to celebrate everything pumpkin. Part of its success is that the event is free to visit, and the attendance to this small Ohio town over the four days in mid-October is outstanding. Despite growing up in Ohio, I had never been to the Circleville Pumpkin Show due to autumn being a busy harvest season for my family; it is something that I had always wanted to do. This year, I finally got to attend my first ever Circleville Pumpkin Show (now in its 112th year).
The very first ever Circleville Pumpkin Show was held in 1903, and it was a small harvest festival with decorated pumpkins and jack-o'-lanterns. This year's show was the 112th because the show was not held for three years around the World Wars.
The pumpkin show runs from Wednesday to Saturday each year. I attended on the Wednesday, which is the first day of the event. On the Wednesday, the show kicks off with the pumpkin weighing. This is to determine which pumpkin is the largest/heaviest. Prizes are given for the largest/heaviest pumpkin, and there are additional prizes given too.
The pumpkins to be weighed arrive in the back of a truck, where they are then placed onto scales. Once the pumpkins are weighed, they have the name of the owner and their weight painted onto them.
The mascot of the Circleville Pumpkin Show is "The Pumpkin Man", and he skates around the streets of Circleville during the event, dressed in orange. He gets photographs with families and makes sure that everyone is having a good time! He stopped and chatted to us.
Another feature of the Circleville Pumpkin Show is the pumpkin pyramid. This was surrounded by all sorts and all sizes and colours of pumpkin - orange, white, cream, grey, miniature, etc. It was also surrounded by all sorts of gourds and squash, all of which are for sale and all of which looked in perfect condition and polished.
The pumpkin pyramid is the centrepiece for the event.
Also at the Circleville Pumpkin Show, Lindsey's Bakery shows the largest pumpkin pie. It measures 14 feet in diameter and was made using 795 pounds of pumpkin and 60 dozen eggs. It requires 15 people to mix the ingredients and takes ten hours to bake! The pie is auctioned off and then donated to local hogs to enjoy.
The Circleville Pumpkin Show has a huge selection of foods throughout the venue. There are also fairground rides (mainly rides for smaller children but also some for larger ones) dotted in various places, and it really is like a large county fair. I started to make a note of every pumpkin-related food that I saw, and I saw a lot! The Pumpkin Man recommended the pumpkin chilli, which is ground beef with pumpkin and tomato sauce and beans.
My first treat was a funnel cake with pumpkin cream, which tasted like pumpkin pie filling and was very delicious. I enjoy funnel cakes as one of my favourite county fair foods! It's hard to describe what this is like, but it is a sweet batter similar to pancake batter that is dripped into a fryer and fried and covered with powdered sugar. It is similar to a pancake-doughnut. Pumpkin funnel cakes were also available with cinnamon and cream cheese icing.
Then I saw pumpkin brownies, pumpkin taffy...
Before my father bought half a dozen pumpkin waffles for all eight of us to share, and these were really nice. I don't know how to describe the taste of these either, but they are deep-fried batter (with pumpkin) and come out like crispy wafers. They don't taste like anything I can compare it with, and it had been years since I've eaten one!
And earlier in the day, my father bought a little bucket from this little van with a pumpkin on top...
...of miniature pumpkin-flavoured doughnuts. Lindsey's Bakery is the best-known for the doughnuts, and they actually sell these all year. I had one several years ago when we drove through Circleville in the summer. There is a long queue/line for these doughnuts.
The deep-fried cookie dough screamed at me; it wasn't pumpkin flavoured, but I tried it. It was good. They also had deep-fried Oreo cookies, buckeyes (the Ohio State tree which is a food item named after the nut of the horse chestnut tree, but these nuts are poisionous and not to be confused with the peanut butter balls dipped in chocolate to look like the nut), and other treats deep-fried. They were actually too sweet for me.
And my father bought my mother and his grand-daughter a pumpkin ice cream, and I tasted a spoonful of it. It was good. (That's my mother posing for the photograph!)
Of course, no county fair event would be the same without candy or caramel apples!
And there was even deep-fried pumpkin!...
...Pumpkin cappuccino, pumpkin smoothie...
...Pumpkin cream, pumpkin mini doughnuts, pumpkin pie, pumpkin bread, pumpkin fudge, pumpkin coney dog, pumpkin pulled pork, pumpkin cupcake, pumpkin coffee, pumpkin spice cappuccino, pumpkin funnel cakes, pumpkin ice cream, pumpkin shakes, pumpkin shots at the local bar, pumpkin chili, pumpkin cranberry bratwurst, pumpkin swirl cheese cake, pumpkin soup, pumpkin bread, pumpkin nachos, pumpkin burger, pumpkin cake, pumpkin waffles, pumpkin ice cream, pumpkin brittle, pumpkin shredded chicken, pumpkin cannoli, pumpkin hot chocolate, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin seeds....
...Deep-fried pumpkin cheesecake donuts, pumpkin float, pumpkin chili dog, pumpkin cream puffs, pumpkin spice pork sausage, pumpkin cheese pizza, pumpkin soda, pumpkin no-bakes, pumpkin buckeyes...
...And pumpkin crafts and items for sale. I liked the little sewn pumpkin cushions, and there were also glass pumpkins as well as jams and jellies for sale.
After the pumpkin weighing, the three largest pumpkins were available to view on the wagon along with the other pumpkins. The weather conditions this year were challenging for pumpkins. But, the winners for this year were first place to Mark Litz with a 1,607 pound pumpkin. Second place was Bob Brown's 1,548 pound pumpkin and the 1,331.5 pound pumpkin belonging to Mark Hoffhines.
Other prizes are for prettiest pumpkin, best strange-looking pumpkin, best display, and so on.
Last, but not least, a permanent mural depicts the Circleville Pumpkin Show and the Pumpkin Man on the side of a building.
And, the Wednesday also marks the start of the parades with the Little Miss Pumpkin parade and the Queen Pumpkin parade. The cars were lined up with the little girls waiting for the parade to begin.
Unfortunately, I was told that we had to leave after only four hours exploring the pumpkin show, and I did not get to see all of it or do everything that I wanted to do. One of the items on my list was to watch the parade, and it was just about to start when I was forced to leave. So, I am very disappointed about that as attending this festival has been on my list for many years, going back to the time when I was a young girl.
My tips for exploring the Circleville Pumpkin show are to try to go on a weekday when it is less busy, and try to get there fairly early in order to get a parking space; you will likely need to pay for a space. The early afternoon is when people start to arrive and when the parades begin (with marching bands) and when the music and entertainment. There's also more to see/do then, though you will need a few hours as well to try the different foods too, and there is a lot to see. There were a few things that I wanted to try with the pumpkin food, but I did not get to as we were in a group; I wanted to try a savoury pumpkin dish. Also, there are other areas to see that I did not get to with crafts/arts/produce judging/etc. And I would have gone on the ferris wheel but did not get to. So, in short, there's plenty to keep occupied and it isn't the type of place to rush as there's a lot to see and do as long as you know the schedule and what there is to see and do before you go. It's not all about the food, rides, and pumpkin display. A map of the event would also be useful as some of the areas tend to start to look the same. Also do not forget your souvinirs, which are located not far from the largest pumpkin display.
Leave a comment