Tag: Costume Parade

  • Saturday, October 17 – Keene Pumpkin Festival

    The 19th Annual Keene Pumpkin Festival will take place Saturday, October 17, in Keene, New Hampshire. ” The arrival of the Pumpkin Festival has a warming effect, like the aroma of coffee brewing in a morning kitchen”, according to The Keene Sentinel.  “The Pumpkin Festival began as a modest event for the people of Keene and their friends.  It was great fun, and sure proof that there is more than one way to carve, cook and stack a pumpkin.  [Nineteen] years later, all has changed.  Keene’s once cozy little celebration has gained world-wide stature.  It is, for lack of a better word, a spectacle.”  In the past, over 25,000 pumpkins decorated the streets.  Over 1,000 costumed children take part in the Costume Parade, non profit organizations take in more than $200,000, a 1,300 pound pumpkin, the largest pumpkin ever displayed at the time, was brought in, sometimes weddings are planned, craft and food vendors line the streets, and more than 800 volunteers donate their time.  For more information, and directions, log on to www.pumpkinfestival.com.

    http://www.hoardedordinaries.com/lori/images/2006-10-21.jpg

  • Sunday, September 13, 12 – 7 pm – Cambridge Carnival at Kendall Square

    Not exactly a garden event, but something of interest to our Boston members is the 17th Annual Cambridge Carnival International.  This is a colorful and festive celebration rooted in African traditions.  The festival attracts over 150,000 people, making it the largest festival in Cambridge, Massachusetts  The highlight of this annual Mardi Gras style festival is a grand costume parade accompanied by rich rhythmic musicality promoting all types of cultures.  The festival combines food and craft exhibits, costumes, masks, wire-bending, live music, steel pan, street parades and dancing, displaying the history and culture of the Caribbean traditions based on the models of Trinidad, Tobago, and Brazil.  For more information log on to www.cambridgecarnival.org.  The Children’s Museum will feature “Meet Me at the Table,” and will focus on food and art activities that relate to six different cultures around Boston: Brazilian, Haitian/Caribbean, Puerto Rican and Dominican, Cape Verdean, Chinese and Vietnamese. They will be setting a table with beautiful, artist-made play food, and will encourage festival participants to eat and play together. Activities will include making collage place mats that will then go back to the museum for use at our big end-of-summer party in September.

    Carnival Close-up by Steve_C.