Pumpkin Daze 2019

Main Street in downtown Republic was full of hustle and bustle on Saturday, Oct. 5 as an estimated 12,000 people gathered there for the 28th Annual Republic Pumpkin Daze. The festival featured almost 250 vendor booths, performances by local talent, a pie eating contest, a produce competition, and a pet parade. The event was free and open to the public.
Several small businesses, including jewelry makers, food vendors, artists, and service providers set up booths along Main Street to promote their goods and services to festival-goers. There were also activities, including the Thunder Ridge Express, a mini-train which provided rides for children and parents, Lazer Tag and a bounce house for kids.
Many vendors reported a large number of sales during the day. Dina Readinger, who manned the Nut Man booth for her father, Jack Hein, said “lots of people (were) interested” in her booth during festival.
“We sell out of nuts (here),” she said. “I’ve sold out of my signature Pumpkin Pecans today.”
Karizma Salon, which offered face painting for children, also did some brisk business.
“At one point, we had two lines outside of our tent for facepainting,” said owner Stacy Brown.
In addition to vendor booths, there were also live performances at the stage area, including the singing of the National Anthem by the Republic Middle School Sixth-Grade Singers, a martial arts demonstration by Gillespie’s Academy of the Martial Arts, and guitar music performed by Dylan Brock. Festival-goers were also able to view the winning produce entries, including a record-setting 1,798-pound pumpkin grown by local grower and past record setter Richard Bottorf.
The festival came to an early end when a brief but powerful thunderstorm swept through the area, dumping inches of rain that vendor tents provided very little protection against. As vendors worked to get their wares out of the storm, members of Live Church helped them to take down their booths.
Josh Troester, the church’s lead pastor, said they saw the storm as an opportunity to minister to those in need.
“A couple of our neighboring booths were ministries that were affiliated with the church, and they had a lot of stuff out, so we helped tear them down,” he said. “We just started identifying other people that needed a little bit of help around us, and ran over and started helping them tear down.”