The Great Cortland Pumpkinfest Returns!

Jack Eves: [00:00:00] X101 Always Classic. Good morning, Jack Eves
here in the studio for another edition of Meet Cortland County, and
joining me this morning is Savannah Hempstead with the Cortland, or I
should say, the Great Cortland Pumpkinfest, which is coming up on
Saturday, October 4th and Sunday October 5th.
Savannah, it’s always great to see you. How are you?
Savannah Hempstead: Wonderful, Jack. Good morning.
Jack Eves: Good morning. Yes. You know it’s the 28th Annual
Pumpkinfest and a whole lot is again happening. You wanna give us
some insight on that?
Savannah Hempstead: It’s exciting. We’re happy to keep this event
going and it just keeps growing every year. We have the Midway coming
back, which is always a family favorite.
We have over 70 vendors, craft vendors, artisans, food vendors. We
have local nonprofits coming back. If you can’t find something to do with
this Pumpkinfest, I don’t know where you would find something to do this
weekend.
Jack Eves: I, I know, right? You talk about over 70 craft vendors and
artisans, I mean. Talk about the variety there in the food trucks and the
Pumpkin Pub of [00:01:00] course is gonna be there.
You know, there really is something for everyone. And it’s nice too,
you’re looking outside the window and the leaves already changing. It’s
fall is here, and what’s more fall in Cortland than The Great Cortland
Pumpkinfest.
Savannah Hempstead: Exactly. Yes. The Pumpkin Pub we have,
Cortland Beer Company, Homer Hops, McGraw Box Brewery, all local
breweries coming back to provide their festive drinks to the local
community.
Jack Eves: Get yourself a nice drink, and then also listen to the live
music options as well you guys are gonna be having on the stage.
Savannah Hempstead: Yes, starting at noon, both Saturday and
Sunday. We have local artists coming to the stage. Nicholas Stark is

kicking us off on Saturday, and then on Sunday we have Bradford Allen
kicking us off at noon.
Jack Eves: That’s amazing to see, and you know, besides obviously the
food and the shopping, there’s a whole bunch of activities. You
mentioned the Midway too, that’s gonna be in the parking lot, the County
Office Building, but I also saw pony rides, which my nieces are gonna be
very excited to hear.
And of course the famous hay rides as well.
Savannah Hempstead: [00:02:00] Yes, hay rides. And we have the Kid
Zone, which is going to include the hay area, which was a big hit last
year for the kids.
Jack Eves: Who knew, hay could be so popular, but you know, you’re
young. It’s fun. You can always mess around with that. And there’ll also
be pumpkin decorating coming up too, right?
Savannah Hempstead: Yes, in the Kid Zone always, we had the
pumpkin decorating available where you’ll be able to decorate your own
pumpkin and bring it home that day if you so choose. And we also have
the pumpkin decorating contest, which is live on the website. If you
wanna fill out an entry form and bring it day of, you can decorate your
pumpkin at home and enter into that contest.
Jack Eves: That, that’s a good thing to note too. the website,
CortlandPumpkinfest.org, and I was on it right before we went on and it’s
great to see. There’s also a map now of the festival grounds.
Savannah Hempstead: Yes, brand new this year. We have a map so
you can see all of the activities and where they will be on the grounds
this year.
Jack Eves: That’s amazing to see, you know, and of course you gotta
get your Pumpkinfest merchandise. I’m seeing that on the icon as well.
[00:03:00] And also great seeing that there’s gonna be an Information
Stand for, visitors as well.
Savannah Hempstead: Yes. And don’t forget to check out. We will have
our web store opening up and we have our t-shirt contest winner design
on there as well.

Jack Eves: Yeah, that’s great. And if you’re curious of who the t-shirt
winner is, you guys post it on your Facebook page as well. I’m sure
there’s gonna be plenty of postings and pictures too during Pumpkinfest
and you know, we gotta give a big shout out to our sponsors as well this
year.
Savannah Hempstead: Yes, thank you. Thank you to Experience
Cortland, Guthrie, and The Wolack Group for their gracious
contributions, as well as all of our other sponsors, which we could not
make this event happen without.
Jack Eves: It’s, it’s great to see the community always come together,
especially for Pumpkinfest, which is again, folks on Saturday, October
4th, as well as Sunday October 5th.
And you know, besides Pumpkinfest, also across the street Cortland Fire
Department is having their open house, they’re also gonna be a
barbecue in the City Hall parking lot. There’s just so much to do right in
Downtown Cortland that weekend.
Savannah Hempstead: So much to do. Come check out the Great
Cortland [00:04:00] Pumpkinfest and all the festivities there are to offer.
Jack Eves: That’s amazing. Again, more information can be found
online at CortlandPumpkinfest.org, including their brand new map for
this year. So when you get there, you know where to hit as well.
Savannah, it’s always great speaking with you for Pumpkinfest every
year. Is there anything else you’d like to add?
Savannah Hempstead: No. Look forward to seeing you there, Jack.
Jack Eves: Awesome. Thank you for joining us this morning for Meet
Cortland County. I’m Jack Eves.