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A few days ago I posted a couple of pictures of the annual Damariscotta Pumpkin Festival. This coastal Maine town takes its giant gourds seriously with a weeks worth of celebrations that ends with the most popular event…
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The Pumpkin Regatta. We didn’t go, but it’s so delightfully quirky I have to share some of the photos I saw on the news.
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Definition of a pumpkin regatta – oddly dressed people cut big holes in oddly decorated hollowed out pumpkins and take to the water.
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Sometimes the spectators are oddly dressed as well.
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The Regatta is well attended and covered by the local media.
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A Viking Longboat?
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It’s not long, but why not?
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There was even a gnome.
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I always wonder how this tradition got started.
Who looked at a big pumpkin and thought, put an outboard on that and you’ve really got something.
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Of course some entries do it the old fashioned hand powered way. And from the look of this picture, paddling slowly is not the way to go.
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Mainers.
Ya gotta love ‘em.
🤣
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River's world..... 
Looks a lovely event. The sort of thing I’m glad other people enjoy doing so I don’t have to do any physical exercise or risk falling in cold water myself.
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Exactly. And Maine water is cold in the summer, forget October.
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That looks rural, dorky and delightful!
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In other words, perfect!
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I’ll have to see if there’s a punkin in the $4.88 bin at work big enough to make my own boat out of. and pass on the annual squirrel o’lantern…
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Or maybe… build a pumpkin boat for a squirrel.
😉
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That’s one reason for me yo visit Maine
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This is amazing.
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Some of the boats look very small though… must be a bit of a squash…
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Nice one!
🤣
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Ha! I love these! Oh my gourd! Gotta love the spirit and creativity that others come up with for our delight! Those are so HUGE gourds. I’ve never seen anything like this before; thanks for sharing the fun!
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You can see why I had to.
😉
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Absolutely!!😎
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Love this! In my part of the world there have sprung up a bunch of “witches’ paddles” – (mostly) women dressed as typical witches on paddle boards and even in a dragon boat. I keep finding out about these events after the fact, unfortunately. Next year hopefully I can attend!!!
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That sounds equally quirky.
👍
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What a great tradition to have!! But like you, I wonder who started it and how it took hold of all the residents of this town to make it such a huge thing every year.
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I once had to carve a 75 pound pumpkins we grew in our garden. The flesh was plenty thick at 75 pounds. Getting into one of those monsters I would imagine calls for a very long bladed reciprocating saw and a gnome safety helmet. And then you have to jump/crawl/wriggle in and remove the goop and seeds. And finally paint it and put it in the water. What could go wrong? Hand me another pumpkin beer I am thirsty from just thinking about all this…
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The logistics are daunting, no doubt.
Cheers!
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The gnome is definitely my fave!!
Last week, I saw some kid from an ivy league college fulfilled his life quest to cross the local river in a giant pumpkin!
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From the looks of it, it’s easier said than done.
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On the topic of cleaning the pumpkin,the college student said it took 2 hours with a pick & shovel.
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I don’t know where the tradition started, but I know Nova Scotia has a number of Pumpkin Regatta festivals this time of year. It starts with the growing of pumpkins 500 lbs and bigger for the Biggest Pumpkin contests. Once they are weighed they get hollowed out and used as boats. Some prairie towns tried to duplicate these festivsls but pumpkins just don’t grow that big here. So they use anything that can float but isn’t meant to. There are more disasters than successes.
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Interesting. And here I thought we were unique.
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Everyone loves to be unique, and Maine may have started it, who knows. Tgst’s the thing with the internet, as the size of yoyr world grows, the uniqueness begins to shrink.
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Brrrr… but fun! I wonder if any pumpkin pulp ever gets in the water? My cats love pumpkin and I wonder if fish do, too.
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Whole pumpkins probably end up in the water. Instant fish condominiums…
😉
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I’m shocked Portland, OR doesn’t have something like this.
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This looks like a lot of fun! Of course, that water DOES look cold as well.
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It’s Maine. It’s always cold….
😉
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