Dear Mummy, Halloween is fast approaching and we took the opportunity to celebrate the harvest and visit The Autumn Pumpkin Festival at Royal Victoria Country Park, in Southampton.
This seasonal extravaganza was hosted by the Jubilee Sailing Trust, and in its 19th year people brought their biggest and best pumpkins and supersize vegetables to be judged. We couldn’t believe our eyes seeing the tallest sunflower and the largest cabbage on display.
But it was all about the pumpkins. In the hotly contested heaviest pumpkin competition, brothers Stuart and Ian Paton, from Lymington, broke their own record. Their giant pumpkin came in at a whopping 162 stone – which smashed their previous UK record by 15lbs.
We also saw lots of scarecrows with visitors bringing gruesome and funny characters to the festival. Some made by school children and others by local businesses.
We enjoyed walking down Scarecrow Avenue looking at all the creations made by the local community. Our favourite was a Harry Potter scarecrow and on display they had Minions, fairytale characters and even the odd celebrity.
Across the day there were a number of stalls serving autumnal food and drink. There was music, dance, crafts, storytelling and people offering up gardening advice to visitors inspired by the giant vegetables. See our video 🙂
Entrance was £5 for an adult and children were free and it great fun for the whole family with seasonal games, free kids circus activities, a Punch and Judy show along with bouncy castles. Even the emergency services got involved bringing down a police scarecrow and the opportunity for kids to dress up in uniform. The Fire engine drew crowds as children wanted to ride it. Great community engagement and we had a lot of fun playing dress-up.
The live music was the perfect accompaniment while browsing the autumn themed gift stands and craft stalls. They even had Christmas items displayed. Loads of visitors got into the spirit of Halloween and also dressed up. We were most impressed (and scared) by the lady with the pumpkin head! Like something out of Sleepy Hollow!
It was a lovely day out and we enjoyed seeing all the super-sized vegetables and to celebrate the bountiful harvest. It was great for local charities too and we found out a lot about community services. We’d definitely recommend a visit to the Autumn Festival at Netley next year!
love Bella x
Have you celebrated the harvest this year?
dearmummyblog.com 
What a great event and wow that pumpkin is amazing, if slightly gross looking!! #CountryKids
Yeah it does look slightly strange…. deformed almost x
I love the look of this, not too big and very local and family friendly. Such a lovely theme for a festival and wow to the giant pumpkin! We have been decorating jars with tea lights for Halloween this week but I love the simple pumpkin style ones on the display there, I might keep this one in my mind for next year’s fun day here.
Thank you for sharing a great looking event with me at #CountryKids
Wow, that pumpkin really is HUGE! I love the Harry Potter scarecrow too 🙂 #CountryKids
Oh wow that pumpkin is humongous!!! Great inspiration, we are hoping to get some pumpkin fun and decent weather tomorrow with National Trust 😉 #countrykids
Oh wow this place looks right up my street! I would love to see this amazing looking pumpkin #countrykids
That seems like a great event. Nice to see the giant vegetables. That pumpkin is huge! #countrykids
Love the scarecrows! That pumpkin is massive! #countrykids
Good grief, that pumpkin is huge!It looks like a great, family friendly event #countrykids
Oh my goodness that pumpkin is massive! I love the Harry Potter scarecrow. Looks like you had a fun day out 🙂 #countrykids
This looks like a lovely event, and oh my goodness, that pumpkin!! It’s HUGE! The scarecrows look fun too. #countrykids
What a great event. That pumpkin is huge! Love the scarecrows too.
Wow that pumpkin is massive! Think I watched a documentary on the largest pumpkin once. Scary pumpkin head but a wicked costume! What a lovely community day out! #countrykids
Looks like a fun fall festival. When my son was younger, we used to go to multiple festivals and pumpkin patches. Now, he thinks he is too old for all of that. Glad you were able to have a fun day with your family and see that enormous pumpkin. #countrykids
I’ve been looking for pumpkin adventures and saw this post and thought that sounds amazing. Then I realised it’s a one off! Lol. I will have to pencil this one in for next year. Monkey would have loved that huge pumpkin. Although I always think when they get too big they stop resembling pumpkins! Xx #Countrykids
Ah we were there too although we left quite early as we had to go to a birthday party. I think it’s a great day out and there’s been some lessons learned from previous years (although my girly made a scarecrow for scarecrow alley and then a friend found it ‘dumped’ along one of the roads on their way home – thankfully J didn’t see it!) #CountryKids
Was that the one at Station Rd? Didn’t realise you were local xx
Looks like a brilliant day out. The pumpkin is massive! Happy Halloween X #twinklyTuesday
That is one huge pumpkin! 😳😂
We found out they carved it too at the weekend! It’s on the BBC News channel 😲
What a fab event! That pumpkin is mahoosive! Thanks for linking up with #TwinklyTuesday