KEENE – To top the phenomenon that was the 2012 Keene Pumpkin Festival, organizers announced plans for streamlined programming and an unwavering focus on the goal of bringing home the world record for most lit jack-o’-lanterns.

A key component of the official world record attempt is having an onsite Guinness adjudicator authenticate and announce the result. The cost of adjudication is $8,000. Organizer Let it Shine, Inc., has set up focused fundraising for this amount, asking local purveyors of Guinness to pitch in. Right off the bat, the new owners of the former Railroad Tavern (opening as SCORES Sports Bar and Grille on Sept. 5) made a gift of $1,000 to lead off the campaign.

Other ways planners are insuring success include establishing a lighting team dedicated to having each pumpkin lit so it counts. “We’re starting at 8:15 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 19, when Mayor Kendall Lane announces that we’ve won the world record, and we’re eliminating every possible obstacle to that result,” explained Sterling.

People interested in volunteer assignments at Pumpkin Festival are encouraged to visit the pumpkinfestival.org website and register.

Festival Creator Nancy Sporborg, who introduced the Guinness category for jack-o’-lanterns and led Keene to its eight world records, encouraged all visitors to the festival to carve their own masterpieces: “We are counting on you. Your pumpkin counts! You matter.”

If the 2013 Keene Pumpkin Festival is like its predecessors, it will bring to the southwestern corner of NH national and international press. The biggest sales weekend of the year. The best advertising a city could create. All good… but is it enough? The festival action team, represented by Sterling, is saying, “No, it’s not enough. The people of this region came out in droves for the 15,000 free pumpkins from C&S Wholesale Grocers last year. People of all walks of life carved, lugged, lighted, counted, cleared and cleaned… and never gave up. And because of that effort and faith in the magic of Keene Pumpkin Festival, we are announcing that IT IS TIME to bring the world record home.”

In 2012, by winning the celebrity Property Brothers television show, “Pumpkin Wars,” the region earned almost $30,000 from Discover Card for 16 local educational causes, estimated to directly help more than 106,000 people. A new playground for the Wheelock School neighborhood was one of the benefits of the 2012 Pumpkin Festival. The neighborhood which helps most to host the visitors and bounces back with early morning cleanup was fittingly rewarded with $5000 toward a new playground.

With a few surprises still in the works, Pumpkin Festival 2013 organizers Let it Shine are ready to announce plans for Keene’s signature event:

Welcome Centers and Carving Stations at each downtown entrance. Log in your carved jack-o’-lantern to be part of the world record tally, make a donation to keep the festival shining. If you forgot your pumpkin, you can carve one at the carving station – or adopt one at the Pumpkin Orphanage – and log it in. The carving stations at each of the seven Welcome Centers will contribute scores of jack-o’lanterns to the Guinness World Record attempt. Face painting and other kids’ activities featured at the Welcome Centers.

The Great Pumpkin Mile race at 8:30 a.m.

The Pump(kin) Dump Derby at 8:30 p.m.

Pumpkin Festival Children’s Costume Parade, 12:30 p.m.

Pumpkin Patch children’s activities, noon-2 p.m.

Pumpkin Bowling, 2-6 p.m.

Food and Craft Court, noon-8:15 p.m.

Spectacular Pumpkin Tower at Central Square, plus thousands of jack-o-lanterns on street-level displays, noon-8:30 p.m.

The 2013 Keene Pumpkin Festival runs from noon-8:30 p.m. (precisely) on Saturday, Oct. 19. More information is available online at pumpkinfestival.org.

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