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Sunday, October 12, 2014

No Flying Pumpkins This Year

World Championship Punkin Chunkin has been postponed until November 2015.
Pumpkins will not fly this year in Delaware. For the first time in nearly 30 years, the World Championship Punkin Chunkin will not take place.

Organizers announced Oct. 3 that this year's event on the grounds across Route 1 from Dover International Speedway will be postponed until next November. The event had been planned for Oct. 24-26 at the same site as the Firefly music festival.

The amount of pre-planning, permitting and logistical detail required to hold the event in Kent County caught organizers off guard, said John Huber, president of the World Championship Punkin Chunkin Association.

The association voted earlier this year to move the event from the Wheatley farm near Bridgeville to Kent County. Since its inception in a Lewes field in 1986, the event has taken place at various Sussex locations.

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13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yep kill off another chance for a small eastern shore town to make some money and promote tourism......a dam shame.....

Anonymous said...

Just as I predicted.Terrible location to boot

Anonymous said...

Frozen Pumpkins will be interesting.

Anonymous said...

All these changes because some bonehead decided to get on a 4 wheeler when they shouldn't have (because they were drunk) and wrecked it and got injured. So they sued the original land owner. I never heard how that turned out. I hope the judge gave him another knot on his head for even thinking about going after the land owner.

Anonymous said...

The punkin chunkin has officially been hijacked!

Anonymous said...

A couple years ago other states were expressing an interest in hosting the event.When the 4 wheeler incident occurred as 5:51 stated I expected to hear other offers.If there is legal red tape over the name of the event and the event itself one would think those in charge would gladly accept out of state offers just to keep it going.

Anonymous said...

that is the kiss of death. Moving it to dover was not a smart move. I bet attendance is 50% next year.

Anonymous said...

9:46-Anytime in the past when an annual event skipped a year the attendance did indeed fall off when the event was finally held.Someone suggested holding this event on the beach between Bethany and Fenwick and determining the distances with a laser device.People could retrieve the pumpkins with jet skis.When I first read that suggestion I thought it sounded ridiculous.Now it makes sense,at least to me.

Anonymous said...

I'm surprised it lasted this long. The gov't will strangle the life out of anything if it doesn't get enough money or control. I remember when there was talk of it moving to a farm near Hebron, until the county put a stop to that idea. Can't imagine how much money that event brings to the local area. Sad.

Anonymous said...

Yea this is sad. Another great tradition fouled up.

Anonymous said...

If Kent County didn't accommodate them then why do they plan to use Kent County next year?

How could Kent County lose the event? What do they have to do?

Anonymous said...

1:57
The location they had used for the event for years wouldn't allow them to use the land anymore. A few years back someone who was helping with the event jumped on a 4 wheel when they should have (they had been drinking) He wrecked it and got injured and sued the land owner. This entire mess is from some jerk not taking personal responsibility for their own actions. After the lawsuit the land owner told them they couldn't use the land anymore. I don't think the county had anything to do with this.

Anonymous said...

There is a lot of open land where they could hold this event. The problem is no one wants to take the risk of losing their land because of some idiot.