Downtown Logan is shutting down Center Street next Saturday for its fourth annual Giant Pumpkin Festival, a free, all-day celebration expected to draw crowds for a sanctioned weigh-off, more than 100 vendors, and a shot at breaking Utah's 2,289-pound pumpkin record. The event runs from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on October 3, with organizers billing it as bigger than ever.
A Weigh-Off With Real Stakes
More than 25 confirmed giant-pumpkin growers from across the Intermountain West are set to bring entries expected to range from 500 pounds to well over 2,000 pounds, according to KSL.com. The current Utah record, 2,289 pounds, was set on Center Street in 2024 by grower Ralph Laub. Festival organizers are hoping this year's field of entries can push past that mark.
Mark Anderson, owner of title sponsor Anderson's Seed & Garden, said the festival has become one of the premier giant pumpkin weigh-offs in the West. He said this year's event will include more activities, entertainment, food and fun, and he's expecting multiple 2,000-pound pumpkins with a real chance at a new state record. After the weigh-off, the giant pumpkins will be displayed in a gallery, and carvers will transform the massive gourds into works of art for the crowd to see.
Vendors, Food Trucks and Family Programming Fill the Street
The festival will feature 116 vendor booths and food trucks along with more than 20 free interactive activities. Programming includes pumpkin decorating, interactive art projects, a story time session hosted with the Logan City Library, and free movies screened at the historic Utah Theatre. Street artists will also create art displays along Center Street throughout the day.
Live entertainment includes four musical performances, with the Lonely Hearts Club Band closing out the day with a Beatles tribute set from 5 to 7 p.m. at Laub Plaza, located at 45 N. Main Street, per EIN Presswire. The plaza has also hosted local commercial openings, including a Handel's Ice Cream debut, cementing its role as a downtown gathering spot beyond festival day.
Pie-Eating, Parking and Getting There
Also at Laub Plaza, Angie's Restaurant sponsors a pie-eating contest running from 2 to 3 p.m. Center Street will close to vehicle traffic for the day, with parking available on surrounding blocks. The festival has previously drawn more than 20,000 attendees, and organizers describe it as a family-friendly, all-day celebration in the heart of historic downtown Logan.
Anderson's Seed & Garden and Cache Valley Bank, both headquartered in downtown Logan, serve as title sponsors and have backed the event as a way to foster community gathering in the city center. Schedules and updates are posted at centerstreetgiants.com.
How Logan Fits Into a Bigger Pumpkin Season
The Center Street festival lands amid a strong national season for competitive pumpkin growing. In September, Illinois grower Phil Groenewold recorded the heaviest pumpkin weighed in the United States this year, 2,492.5 pounds, at the Bluegrass Championship Weigh-Off in Kentucky, according to CBS News, which reported Groenewold fed his pumpkin up to 80 gallons of water a day. The world record still belongs to British twin brothers Ian and Stuart Paton, who grew a 2,819.3-pound pumpkin in Wargrave, United Kingdom, in October 2025, surpassing Minnesota grower Travis Gienger's 2023 mark of 2,749 pounds, as Hoodline previously reported.
The financial stakes in the sport keep climbing, too. Hoodline's recent coverage of the National Pumpkin Weigh Off in Wheatland, California, detailed a new $75,000 prize for the first grower to submit a 3,000-pound pumpkin at that event on September 26, a competition dating back to 1921. Similar municipal weigh-off festivals have popped up around the country; Saratoga Springs, New York, hosts its own Giant Pumpkinfest in late September, according to The Post Star, underscoring how these events have become regional fall tourism draws well beyond Utah.
