Festival Celebrates the Gourd Old Days

For Jannell Montgomery, visiting the sixth annual Calabasas Pumpkin Festival on Sunday was like taking a trip back in time.

“I grew up in Nebraska, and this reminds me of the small-town fairs they have there,” said Montgomery, of Beverly Hills, as she watched her daughter compete in a pumpkinseed-spitting contest. “I feel like I am in a different place and time.”

Festival organizers hoped to transport visitors to a bygone era by holding the two-day event, which ended Sunday, on the set used for the Western town in the television series “Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman.” The turn-of-the-century show is filmed at Paramount Ranch, nestled in the Santa Monica Mountains.

To re-create a Western frontier town in autumn, festival organizers brought in pony rides, hay bales, handicrafts, Western gear, pioneer demonstrations, and Native American exhibits--not to mention 30 tons of pumpkins.

Visitors strolled narrow, hay-strewn paths winding through the mock village, which offered attractions for every member of the family. Children panned for “gold” at a mining exhibit, tried their hands at spinning wool, saddled up for a pony ride, stumbled through a hay maze and tried to roll a strike with a pumpkin bowling ball.

Adults took in live entertainment on four stages, browsed Western gear, perused hundreds of hand-crafted items and showed off their culinary skills at the Bristol Farms’ Pumpkin Cook-Off, featuring pumpkin pies, breads, cakes, muffins and cookies.

“This place is similar to where I grew up in Knoxville, Tenn., in the Smoky Mountains,” said David Lamb as he and his wife, Patricia, and their two children listened to an acoustic country-music band. “I brought my kids here for the fall atmosphere.”

The weekend festival drew an estimated 26,000 visitors, said Lois Julien, an event spokeswoman.

Proceeds from the festival--co-sponsored by the city of Calabasas and the Calabasas Chamber of Commerce--will primarily benefit Ronald McDonald House and Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center at UCLA, as well as local nonprofit and charitable organizations, Julien said.