CALABASAS : Pumpkin Festival Slated for Weekend

More than 40 celebrities from television and movies will be at Paramount Ranch Saturday and Sunday for the Calabasas Days Pumpkin Festival, a family-oriented annual event that celebrates autumn.

Grand marshals for the third annual event are Cassidy Rae from the television series “Models Inc.” and Jenna von Oy from “Blossom,” said Margery Gould, a spokeswoman for the event.

There also will be appearances by Kathy Baker of “Picket Fences,” Laurie Metcalf of “Roseanne,” and K Callan, “Lois & Clark,” Gould said. Devon Odessa and A. J. Langer from “My So-Called Life” are also scheduled to appear.

“It’s fabulous. It’s fun for everyone. There are hay rides, pony rides and music on all the stages all day long,” said Arlene E. Bernholtz, executive assistant of the Calabasas Chamber of Commerce, which along with the city of Calabasas sponsors the event. “It’s a great time to kick back and put on your Western costumes and Halloween costumes and just come out and have a ball.”

The festival features a variety of games and contests for adults and children. In keeping with the pumpkin theme, there will be a pumpkin-seed spitting contest, a pumpkin cook-off, a pumpkin-pie-eating contest and pumpkin bowling.

To celebrate Halloween, there will be a costume contest, as well as contests to see who can make the scariest sounds and tell the scariest stories, Gould said.

Festival organizers say they expect at least 25,000 people during the two days. Paramount Ranch is an Old West-styled village just south of Agoura Hills off the Kanan Road exit of the Ventura Freeway. The ranch, which has been the setting for various Westerns over the years, is currently the setting for the television show “Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman.”

The festival will also feature a celebrity corral, where the public can meet celebrities, Gould said. Also scheduled to appear are cast members from “Melrose Place,” “Beverly Hills, 90210,” “Saved by the Bell (The New Generation)” “Step by Step,” “Days of Our Lives,” “Hangin’ With Mr. Cooper,” and “Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman.”

Admission to the festival is $7.50 for adults, $6 for seniors and youths ages 12 to 17 and $3.75 for children aged 4 to 11. Children 3 and under get in free. The event runs from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. both days. For further information, call (818) 225-2227.