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Pumpkin Fest parade kicks off season
The West Virginia Pumpkin Festival parade started and ended at West Virginia Pumpkin Park on James River Turnpike in Milton on Sunday.
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MILTON — Jackson reared up a little, snorted, then started trotting across the field, ready to proudly walk through town.
“He’s getting a little bit anxious to get going,” said Huntington resident Charles Masters.
Jackson, the 10-year-old horse wasn’t the only one ready to get going in Milton on Sunday afternoon.
Filled with more than 300 units and thousands of participants, the 2008 West Virginia Pumpkin Festival parade, which started and ended at West Virginia Pumpkin Park on James River Turnpike, wound its way through town with horses and antique cars, fire trucks, scout groups, the General Lee, Kim Cooper’s cow train from The Maize and politicians a plenty.
“I won best decorated horse in 2005, so I thought I would come back out and be a part of it again this year,” said Masters, who decked out himself and his horse in red, white and blue.
Gary and Becky Cooper, along with their sons, Mark and Greg Cooper and Tom and Margie Cooper, from Wilmington, N.C., all worked behind the scenes at the fair grounds keeping the units flowing and tightly together during the parade.
Becky and Margie went around before the parade handing out trophies and awards to the best decorated entries.
“The trophies that we gave out just seemed to make their day,” Margie said. “It’s sort of like its own festival of sorts. Everybody is decorated, and everybody’s happy and having a good time.”
Joe Paxton, a Marshall University graduate and Clay County resident, was in Morgantown on Saturday and came back to Milton on Sunday, just to walk in the parade. He joined his wife, Michelle, friends and a friend’s miniature horse, Snickers, who was decked out in a wreath of fall leaves and pulling a wagon carrying the kids.
“We both went to Marshall, so we like to come up and enjoy the festival each year,” Paxton said. “You really can’t beat the family atmosphere.”
The parade, which had a theme of “Pumpkins, Pumpkins Everywhere,” capped off a pre-festival weekend that also included a Saturday 5K Run and a Horse Show.
The actual festival runs 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday and 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday.
Growing yearly since its inception in 1986, the Pumpkin Festival now attracts more than 50,000 festival-goers to Milton.
In addition to the giant pumpkin contest, the pumpkin baking and cooking contests, there will be lots of live music, a mountain men encampment, apple butter making, sheep shearing, chainsaw art, a festivalwide scavenger hunt, molasses making, pumpkin carving and more.
There will also be more than 80 artisans from around the region displaying juried crafts and doing demonstrations of everything from pottery making to quilting and woodworking.
Becky Cooper said the parade is just a great way to kick off the festival.
“We let anyone who wants to come, and our thought is the more the merrier,” Cooper said.
Bill Kelley, president of the West Virginia Pumpkin Festival, said Sunday afternoon that the parade has grown to such a large event that it may have to be moved another week out, since a huge chunk of Sunday is spent on the parade.
“It’s a year-round thing now, but we started moving tents in on Friday, and we’re still right in behind them stringing wires and everything,” Kelley said. “If you think this is a mad house, just wait until Wednesday, the big move-in day. By Wednesday evening, we will have everything a go for Thursday morning.”
