January 18, 2025

Organizers hope for large crowds at bumped up, 'beefed up' Pumpkin Days

Festival to be held Aug. 28-29 in Orient

By CALEB NELSON

Steve Lilly, Dan Woods and Risa Diers serve food at the Orient United Methodist Church's dinner last year during Orient's Pumpkin Days celebration. This year's celebration is Aug. 28-29. (File Photo)

ORIENT — The Orient Pumpkin Days Planning Committee is aiming to make this year’s community celebration one of their best ever.

Trying to steer away from colder weather, the 2020 Pumpkin Days celebration has been pushed up almost a month and is slated to be held this year Aug. 28 and 29.

“Most of it is outdoors, so we made the executive decision to move it up so people could be outside and enjoy the weather,” said Clarissa Pashek, one of the planning committee members. “This year, we’ve added some new things. This is Orient’s only town celebration. We thought we’d beef it up a little this year and try to get a bigger crowd.”

An official schedule will be printed later, but a few highlights on the schedule include a performance Friday night on Broad St. by The First Name Band. There will also be a bags tournament, the Pumpkin Days Run, the Orient Betterment and Improvement Dinner and a carnival Friday night.

The carnival will continue Saturday. Also being held will be a sand volleyball tournament, vendor fair, food trucks, a pedal tractor pull, chicken and noodle dinner at the Orient Plymouth Congregational Church, cow pie bingo, baked goods auction, beer garden, food vendors and a supper put on by the Orient Methodist Church.

Capping off Saturday’s activities will be a concert by Red Dirt Renegade that will be accompanied by a fireworks show by Top Notch Fireworks of Creston. The fireworks will be shot from just north of the Farmers and Merchants Bank.

Lineup for the parade Saturday will be prior to a 4 p.m. start at the Agriland FS on the west side of Orient.

Pashek hopes that more kid-friendly activities and fireworks will be factors that will play into a large crowd at this year’s event. She explained that large crowds allow for more opportunity for revenue, which means festivals like these in small communities can thrive well into the future.

“People are looking for something to break up the monotony of everybody staying home right now,” Pashek said. “We’re excited and hope a lot of people show up.”