Pumpkin Queen Stacy Stewart has spent the past three years coordinating the Greenbelt Pumpkin Festival. This year’s Pumpkin Festival will be her last as an organizer, and without potential coordinators to take over, the nearly four-decade-old tradition could end sooner than expected.
“We’ve been looking for someone to take over; so far, no takers,” Stewart told the News Review. “There is a real danger that we might not have a Pumpkin Festival next year if I can’t get someone or a group of people to step up and take over.”
The festival traces back to 1988, when Greenbelters came together, carved jack-o’-lanterns and set them in the North Woods amid talk that the surrounding property could be sold for development.
“They carved a bunch of pumpkins and invited people to come out and see the jack-o’-lanterns,” Stewart said. “It was so successful that it kept going even after the woods were safe.”
North Woods is now protected by the Greenbelt Forest Preserve, the charter for which includes protection for the Pumpkin Walk itself.
The Pumpkin Festival was a single event until 2018, when organizers expanded it to include Schrom Hills Park and the Springhill Lake community (now Franklin Park). This meant every resident in Greenbelt was within walking distance of the event.
This Year’s Festival
The Pumpkin Festival now includes five events over three weekends. The first weekend is Saturday, October 10, at Schrom Hills Park, with pumpkin carving from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. and a Pumpkin Walk from 6 to 8:30 p.m. The Schrom Hills route runs along a paved sidewalk, unlike North Woods, making it more accessible for residents with mobility issues.
There is pumpkin carving on Friday, October 16, in Roosevelt Center from 4 to 8:30 p.m. The pumpkins are put on display before volunteers extinguish the candles and load trucks with jack-o’-lanterns. The next morning, more volunteers help unload about 350 pumpkins into the woods, lining the path so Greenbelters can enjoy the pumpkin walk later that night. This year the walk through the North Woods is on Saturday, October 17 from 6 to 9 p.m. Stewart said the walk is calm and gentle from 6 to 7 p.m., making it more child-friendly; after 7 p.m., the walk gets spookier.
In past years, former Greenbelt City Councilmember Rodney Roberts has handed out hot chocolate and hot cider at the end of the North Woods walk. Roberts could not be reached to learn if he will continue his tradition this year.
The last night of the festival is Friday, October 30. There will be pumpkin carving behind Beltway Plaza from 5 to 7 p.m. alongside Trunk or Treat, where candy will be handed out by community organizations.
Future of the Festival
About a dozen residents gathered on July 9 at the Community Center and discussed the festival’s future, including new coordinators and new funding ideas.
“Greenbelters really do love the Pumpkin Festival, and we have people who really want to see it continue,” Stewart said. “We are just having trouble finding a single person who wants to step up and take responsibility for coordinating.”
Coordinating the Pumpkin Festival across three weekends is a lot of work. Stewart hopes to get a committee of three or more to take over the festival, each overseeing one part – carving at Roosevelt Center, the North Woods walk, carving and the walk at Schrom Hills, and the main carving at Beltway Plaza.
“I really want us to make it to 2028, because that will be our 40th anniversary, which is a pretty impressive milestone,” Stewart said.
A committee would also be helpful to share the fundraising, which previously hasn’t started until September, even though they buy supplies in advance. Historically this has put the burden on the coordinator, who used their own money and was reimbursed once the fundraising was complete.
“I think [having a committee] might make it more accessible to more coordinators,” Stewart said.
However, as the search for new leadership continues, Stewart emphasizes that she doesn’t want to see much change to the festival itself, which runs entirely on community donations and volunteers, including support from the Greenbelt Co-op Supermarket, which helps negotiate favorable prices on the pumpkins.
“I think the pumpkin walk is one of the most magical things that happens in Greenbelt,” Stewart said. “When you walk into the woods, you’ve got all these glowing pumpkins that wouldn’t have happened without hundreds of members of the community coming together, carving them and coordinating moving them into the woods. It’s beautiful in and of itself, but it’s even better because it couldn’t happen if the community wasn’t coming together to make it happen.”
Those interested in volunteering can sign up at https://tinyurl.com/2t9ypbnx and donations can be made at https://tinyurl.com/43zccnme for this year’s events. Anyone interested in getting involved in the future of the Pumpkin Festival can email GreenbeltPumpkinFestival@gmail.com or send a message on Facebook by visiting Facebook.com/GreenbeltPumpkinFestival.
Claudia Stuart is a University of Maryland student at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism interning with the Greenbelt News Review.
