Kids Play at Crossroads Pumpkin Fest

STATESVILLE, NC – Jack o’Lanterns beg creativity. Artists have elevated the orange globe’s face to works of art, showing detailed wisps of hair, fun-loving dimples, high cheekbones and sly grins. However, most of us still strive for basic eyes, nose and mouth – all backlit with a shimmering candle. We might show a few teeth and display our pumpkin for the world to see.
Or we’ll smash ‘em,
Kids can do so at the nationally award-winning 7th Annual Crossroads Pumpkin Fest on Saturday, Nov. 7 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. in Historic Downtown Statesville.
The event is one of the premier street festivals in central North Carolina and offers quite a bit for kids to do.
Small fry can play all day. They can smash pumpkins, paint them or bowl with them. The Kids Zone will offer a variety of amusement park rides all day long.
For larger kids, a cornhole tournament and skateboard races will be held throughout the day. Akin to horse shoes, corn holing has become a competitive sport for larger kids. And even kids with well-established gray hair will don their knee and shoulder pads and helmet, push off on their skateboard and race down Court Street. “They put on quite a show,” says Marin Tomlin, executive director of the Downtown Statesville Development Corporation. “Those guys, and some girls, can really hold their own next to the younger set!”
The Festival will include more than 50 art and craft exhibitors, food, three stages of foot-tapping entertainment, the WSIC Biggest Pumpkin Contest and the hilarious pumpkin pie eating contest. Organizers are ecstatic that The Extraordinaires will take center stage from 1:30-4:30 p.m. playing beach, rock and dance music. “We’re very lucky to get them,” said Tomlin. “I expect that we’ll have people boogying all afternoon. This group has members who have played with Harry Deal & The Galaxies, The Inkspots, Bruce Long Orchestra, The Original Drifters, The Platters, Dazzle and The Coasters.”
Admission to the festival is free, although some of the activities will charge a fee.
In May 2009, the media kit from the 2008 festival won First Place from the North Carolina Press Club and advanced to national competition. In September, the media kit was awarded Third Place by the National Federation of Press Women at their annual meeting in San Antonio.
For more information about the festival, log onto www.statesvillepumpkinfest.com, http://crossroadspumpkinfest.blogspot.com or call 704-878-3436.