Community Makes a Great Pumpkin Festival

Jeff Green | Oct 18, 2023

“We are at our capacity, for sure,” said Amanda Pantrey as the core Battersea Pumpkin Festival Crew were cleaning up the festival site at the Battersea Ball Park and the Frontenac Model Train ground just after 5pm on festival day last Saturday (October 14)

The relatively quiet scene stood in stark contrast to the crowds that filled the site to capacity pretty much from the end of the parade at 10am until well after 3pm. The festival has always been oriented to children, and the number of young families from near and far was considerable. With cookie making, pumpkin carving, face painting, games, food, model train rides and sunshine for part of they day, all of kids seemed to be having a great time.

The Frontenac Society of Model Engineers (FSME) are festival mainstays. They ran 3 trains; one gas, one electric and one steam powered, making 193 trips during the day, carrying 1825 passengers, a 50% increase over 2022.

“We were busy,” said Douglas Angle of the FSME.

For the older crowd, in addition to the train, the King of the Swingers was a big draw in the late morning and early afternoon, and the vendor village with its mix of local crafts, educational booths and useful products. And over 800 people ventured off the festival site to the haunted barn in the village.

The first ever Wild Art Walk along the Millburn Creek Trail (see sidebar) included a short section with work brought in for the festival itself, while the rest of the 3km trail has installations at intervals along the way. Since it takes 45 minutes to walk the whole trail and spend some time with the art work, and the festival has so many other attractions, a smaller number made the trek.

But those who did the entire walk arrived at the United Church, where the pie social was hopping all day. With 90 pies available, by the slice (with a drink) for $5, and $15 for a pie to take home, it was a welcome end to the walk.

Festival organisers estimate the attendance of the festival at 3,000, but there could easily have been some that never got counted.

“The real heroes of the day were the 80 volunteers who helped out. That’s the only way the festival happens,” said Pantrey.

At the Pumpkin Festival the Frontenac Society of Model Engineers ran 3 locomotives; a gas, an electric and a steam engine.  We also had a new passenger car in service that was built this year under a grant from the South Frontenac Community Grant Program.  There were 193 trainloads, carrying 1825 passengers.  That's a 50% increase in passenger loading over last year.  On average there was a train leaving the station every 2 minutes.  We also had a static display of model stationary steam engines and we were running on the smaller scale elevated track for demonstration. We were busy.