Bungay’s Pumpkin Night 2009
Saturday 31st October

As usual it looks as though Bungay is the only place to be this Halloween!!!!

Click on images to enlarge

In the run up to the 2009 Bridge Street Pumpkin night, things are looking good. This years Halloween falls on a Saturday, so fun for all. 2008 saw over a hundred massive carved pumpkins lining the street and around the Buttercross in the town so a hard target to beat!

However, we have news from ‘The patch’ and all is growing well. More plants have been grown this year than ever before,” reports Dulcie Titchener. “We are looking to have a bumper harvest to ensure that there are enough pumpkins for the street, the shops and for the sale. We want to make this year the most successful ever.”

In the run up to the event any surplus pumpkins will be on sale on the Flixton Road. You can come and pick up a pumpkin, whatever size you are looking for. “Last year the largest pumpkin that we sold was a whopping 9 stone in weight,” reports Jonathan Franklyn-Bray, “It took two of us to put it into the lady’s car! So many people commented that it was brilliant to be able to buy a pumpkin with character, as these are not your standard ones. It makes the carving of them much more interesting!”

Chairman of the Bungay Feasts and Festivals Committee, Deirdre Shepherd told us “Its amazing what people will do for the town and their neighbours. All the time, energy, ideas and effort is given for free. This culminates into what has become one of Bungay’s regular calendar events. People have been looking forward to this night for months. I’ve been asked ‘how are the preparations?’ ‘What is the Pumpkin Patch looking like?’ And ‘How do you put this event on every year?’ I tell them to ‘Watch this space!’

Bridge Street is one of the oldest streets in the town and the unusual atmosphere provides the perfect backdrop to this unique event. Previous years have seen costumes so effective they could be straight off a film set. “The special thing about this evening” Deirdre states “is the fact it is aimed at the whole community. People of all ages come and enjoy the backdrop of our lovely town, in a safe and family orientated environment, without the fear of over-commercialisation.”

The evening will start at 6pm with the closing of Bridge Street and the lighting of the pumpkins. These are delivered by tractor and carved by a handful of enthusiastic volunteers. As usual there are sure to be some weird and wonderful carvings; some of last years highlights included Scooby Do, Gandalf and Elvis! There will be plenty of sweets for Trick or Treaters, prizes for best costumes (so let your imagination run riot!), fortune telling and plenty of food for all. On Bridge Street, The Chequers Pub will be hosting a BBQ and live music and the Earsham Street Café will be once again serving their amazing pumpkin curry. The street will be reopened to traffic at 10pm.

Food and refreshments are available from stalls and shops around the town, but especially under the Buttercross where a refreshment bonanza will be taking place. There will also be late night shopping, with many of the shops, pubs and the Fisher Theatre staying open late and hosting Halloween related events. It is the perfect opportunity to see what this unusual market town has to offer.

In the weeks preceding the 31st there will be a “Guess the Weight of” and “Name the pumpkin” in the Toy Emporium on St Mary’s Street. Start looking for the shop windows taking part in the “Sponsor a Pumpkin” competition. As usual the committee will judge the most inventive way to dress a shop window around the use of a pumpkin as a prop.

With a record 6000 people attending on the night last year it would be fantastic to see (weather permitting!) the same numbers, or more, this year.

We hope to see you there!

Click on dates for images from previous years 2008 2007

A report from the Pumpkin Patch

“Impressive” is just one word that can be used to describe the pumpkins currently growing at Jonny Crickmore’s pumpkin patch.

With record numbers planted, by hand in May, we are hopefully looking at a bumper harvest.

The weather appears to have been on our side this year with an extremely warm summer and we still have over a month of growing time!

As usual some of the most unusual pumpkins will be kept to present carved to Bridge Street on the 31st October. Any surplus pumpkins will be on sale the 2 weeks preceding Halloween from a trailer on Flixton Road. Bearing in mind the largest one sold last year weighed a mighty 9 stone now may be the time to start thinking about getting your orders in early!

Watch this space for further information!