Charlie Brown and Linus may be looking for the Great Pumpkin again this year, but you won’t have to look very hard to spot giant pumpkins on the streets of Annapolis, Maryland.
Six half-ton pumpkins will be carved on Friday outside of Graduate Hotel, Visit Annapolis Visitors Center, St. Anne’s Church, Main Street, Market Space and Maryland Avenue.
“They weigh anywhere from 900 to 1,400 pounds, so these are giant pumpkins brought in on forklifts,” Downtown Annapolis Partnership Executive Director Erik Evans told WTOP. “We go to a pumpkin weigh-off contest in Western Pennsylvania, we buy the biggest pumpkins we can, then we have a caravan of trucks to transport them back to Annapolis.”
The public is invited to watch these massive pumpkins get carved into jack-o-lanterns and other works of art by local artisans throughout the day on Friday starting around 10 a.m.
“They are local carvers; they are professional carvers,” Evans said. “We have some that carve for a living, that carve ice sculptures from a group called Ice Lab locally. Then we have a group from Gallery 57 West that’s carving one of the pumpkins. Then we have another artist Charles Lawrance and another artist, Skribe, carving this year.”
Carving will be completed by 5 p.m., after which you can enjoy photo ops all weekend. Post your photos on social media with #GreatAnnapolisPumpkins to win gift cards.
“I have no idea what it’s going to be, so I’m just excited as everyone else to see what the artists decide to carve onto these pumpkins,” Evans said. “Last year, we had a Spider-Man, we had angels, we had traditional jack-o’-lanterns, we had one with a whole scene carved into it, we had a church steeple with bats and ghosts and everything.”
The free event started in October 2020 as a fun outdoor activity during the pandemic, but now you can also visit 90 stores and 80 restaurants within walking distance downtown.
“We hope this becomes a local tradition for people to come to Annapolis to get your pictures taken with the pumpkins,” Evans said. “People should come out and plan on making a day of it. They do ghost tours at night. It’s a fun place to be during Halloween.”
Listen to our full conversation here.
