Fundraising, Pumpkins by the pier, zip lining, rock climbing, pony rides, and a farmers market all a Harbor Village!

Halloween at Harbor Village features Festivities for families coming to the coast all October Long!

Half Moon Bay, Ca: Locals, tourists and casual day trippers coming out to the coast will have added reason to visit the Princeton area businesses as Halloween invades Harbor Village from Oct. 1st-31st. Halloween at Harbor Village will feature month long activities and events including their Pumpkins by the Pier Pumpkin patch which is open 7 days per week, Kids Jumpers, Costume and Pumpkin Carving contests, prizes and other family related activities will kick off October.

Overview of Halloween at Harbor Village Events taking place:

- Pony rides and Petting Zoo- every Saturday and Sunday in October

- Sundays Farmers Market with live music every Sunday

- Rock climbing, Zorb balls, and slack lining will take place Sept 30, Oct 21, and Oct 28

- Zip Lining Oct 7, and 14th

All Month Long Halloween Activities at Harbor Village:

• The “Pumpkins By The Pier” pumpkin patch will be Open 7 Days Per Week through October 31st

• Inflatable Jumpers and activities for Kids. (Free use with purchase.)

• Exclusive discounts and coupon packages from local businesses given upon pumpkin purchase.

• Free Drawings and prizes, with grand prize drawing taking place

http://pumpkinsbythepieratharborvillage.blogspot.com/ Visit us for more information! Also charity events taking place!


Dear Resident, schools, and organizations!

As 2012 nears to an end, the Holiday Season at Harbor Village is just getting started. In the spirit of giving we are very excited to announce another year of partnering with local non-profits, charities and schools in our coast side community by offering 10% of sales of all Pumpkin and Christmas trees made to the local coastside organization of your choice. Simply select the charity when you purchase your Pumpkin or Christmas Tree at Harbor Village and we will keep you posted on the amount of money raised. Last year we brought in over $2,400 for local organizations through the Halloween and Christmas Season and we hope to surpass that amount this year.

We invite you to come out to Harbor Village and check out some of the many events taking place over the next few months.

Halloween Decorations & Treats for Parties : How to Make a Pumpkin for a Pumpkin Patch

http://www.mhfive.com/music_video.php

Pumpkin Festival Background Information

The Half Moon Bay Beautification Committee

The Half Moon Bay Beautification Committee consists of an all-volunteer group of civic-minded citizens. The committee's goals are to make a lasting contribution to the preservation and beautification of the town's historic Main Street, to make donations to local non-profit organizations through a grant process, to fund college scholarships for local high school students, and to provide an exceptional fund-raising opportunity to local non-profits through participation in the Art & Pumpkin Festival.
In order to raise funds for their projects, they started the Art & Pumpkin Festival in 1971. Since the festival's inception, the committee has contributed more than $2.6 million dollars to various civic projects, community service organizations and Half Moon Bay High School student scholarships. Some of the Main Street projects funded by the committee at no cost to the city have included: the renovation of City Hall, the painting of historic buildings, the installation of old-fashioned street lights and wooden benches, the underground wiring of Main Street, the planting of trees and flower beds, the construction of Mac Dutra and Kitty Fernandez Parks, and the purchase of garbage receptacles and Christmas lights. Additionally, the committee spends thousands of dollars every year in the on-going maintenance of Main Street. They plant fresh flowers, re-furbish benches, and pay someone to clean up and sweep Main Street every week.
Read more about the Half Moon Bay Beautification Committee...

Festival a Civic Undertaking

The festival is a huge civic effort. Some thirty-five non-profit and community service groups participate in the festival by operating food and game booths. For most, the festival is their most lucrative fund-raising event of the year, enabling them to raise a substantial portion of their annual budget from the two-day festival. An estimated $500,000 is raised every year by local community service groups through food, beverage, game and parking sales at the Pumpkin Festival. By providing this opportunity for the non-profit sector, the Pumpkin Festival helps to perpetuate “giving" in the community, no small feat for a town without a base of large corporate donors.

The Pumpkin Industry on the Coast

Every autumn, thousands of Bay Area residents visit the coastside to pick pumpkins from the picturesque fields along Highways 1 and 92. More than 3,000 tons of pumpkins are grown each year by 15 or so commercial growers in the Half Moon Bay area. They ship pumpkins all over the United States and sell to many of the large retailers in the Bay Area. As always, this year there's a bumper crop.
The pumpkin boom can be traced back to growers in the area who began to plant pumpkins in the 1930's. In the early 30’s, teenager John Arata and his brother Clarence began planting pumpkin seeds to feed the family’s hogs. One day, they were hauling some of their pumpkins along Highway One back to the farm when a passing motorist stopped and asked if he could buy a few. The Arata’s sold the pumpkins for a quarter and a booming pumpkin-picking business and tourist attraction was born.

Half Moon Bay Art & Pumpkin Festival

Half Moon Bay Art & Pumpkin Festival

October 13-14, 2012 — 9 AM to 5 PM
World Pumpkin Capital Celebrates Epic 42nd Anniversary Festival

What:	42nd Annual HALF MOON BAY ART & PUMPKIN FESTIVAL, Oct. 15-16. The World Pumpkin Capital of Half Moon Bay celebrates its bountiful fall harvest and autumn splendor with a special display of gigantically enormous, heavyweight champion pumpkins, three stages of smashing entertainment, non-stop live music, the Great Pumpkin Parade, a bone-chilling Haunted House, harvest-inspired crafts, homestyle foods, expert pumpkin carver Farmer Mike sculpting a monster 1,200+ pound pumpkin into a one-of-a-kind masterpiece, photos with the grand champion mega-gourd, pie-eating and costume contests, pumpkin carving for fun (not a contest), “Smashing Pumpkins: Battle of the Bands”, the Take 5 Lounge with giant screen TV, festival-label wine and Mavericks Pumpkin Harvest Ale. Admission is free. Kicking off the Big Week, the SAFEWAY WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP PUMPKIN WEIGH-OFF—the Super Bowl of weigh-offs—will be held on Monday, October 8 (7 a.m. on the IDES Grounds, 735 Main Street, Half Moon Bay), with a bonus mega-prize of $5,000 awarded to any grower that breaks the world record plus $20,000 in additional prize money at stake in this “heavyweight championship” of gargantuan gourds. The World’s Greatest Gourd Growers compete for the coveted title and top prize of $6 per pound to the winner. Superstar grower Leonardo Urena's gargantuan, gasp-inspiring 1,704-pound mega-gourd set a new California State record and obliterated a formidable field of heavyweight contenders in winning the 2011 Safeway World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off. The grand champion gourd, along with the top five pumpkins, will be displayed at the Art & Pumpkin Festival, October 13-14. Live Music and Entertainment on three stages … the sensational lineup includes everything from contemporary country, Latin rock, salsa, blues, folk, and classic rock ‘n roll music by some of the Bay Area’s biggest name bands. Performing on the IDES Main Stage are The California Cowboys, Bump City, Willie G, Jim Stevens & Friends, The Cocktail Monkeys, Lovefool, Extra Large, and Caravanserai. The Ritz-Carlton Gazebo Stage will feature Top Secret, Rockin’ Down the Hiway, Kaye Bohler and The Bay Area Heat. Street performers include Kaweh, HeartStrings Music, Emerson, Bob “Stickman” Culbertson and Jeffrey Michael. The Family Stage will showcase talented young performers from Radio Disney’s “Next Big Thing” and “Smashing Pumpkins: Battle of the Bands” featuring the musical genius of up-and-coming rock bands. Food & Drink ... pumpkin-infused treats like pumpkin pie, pancakes, ice cream, smoothies, cheesecake, sausage, churros, cookies and bread, along with hearty stews of artichokes and Brussels sprouts, tamales, macaroni and cheese with pumpkin seeds, corn-on the-cob, roasted turkey legs, hot beef sandwiches, baked potatoes, fried calamari, clam chowder, Half Moon Bay Winery’s festival-label wine and Half Moon Bay Brewing Company’s Mavericks Pumpkin Harvest Ale made with locally-grown pumpkins that are roasted with a secret blend of spices. Events and Contests ... Pancake Breakfast (both days, 7 AM), Costume Contest (Saturday, 10 AM), The Great Pumpkin Parade (Saturday, 12 noon), Pie-Eating Contests (Saturday and Sunday, 2 PM), “Smashing Pumpkins: Battle of the Bands” (Saturday and Sunday, 3 PM), 5 & 10k Pumpkin Run (Sunday, 8 AM), Pumpkin Carving for fun/no judging (Sunday, 10 AM).
When:	October 13-14, 2012. Open from 9 AM to 5 PM both days.
Where:	270 Capistrano Rd, Half Moon Bay, CA 94019 (Harbor Village in front of Crab Landing and Mezza Luna Cafe)   Contact us:  650 722-0840

Half Moon Bay Art & Pumpkin Festival: A Brief History

A Brief History

Over the years, the Half Moon Bay Art & Pumpkin Festival has grown significantly, attracting throngs of visitors who come to pick pumpkins, admire the area's natural beauty and enjoy an old-fashioned festival.
The festival began in 1971 when the Main Street Beautification Committee was formed. The all-volunteer, non-profit group was founded with the goal of raising funds for the revitalization of Main Street in downtown Half Moon Bay which, at the time, was beginning to show signs of decay. Realizing the area's abundance of pumpkin patches, the committee decided to organize an old-fashioned festival in the downtown area for visitors who had come to pick Halloween pumpkins.
The first year of the Festival, about 30,000 people attended the event and only one local non-profit group opted to present food. Now the event bulges with enormous crowds and dozens of local non-profit groups operating food and game booths, earning substantial portions of their annual budget from the festival weekend selling everything from pumpkin pie and ice cream to linguica sandwiches and corn dogs.
"The Pumpkin Festival has done more the for this city, by far, than any other thing in the city's history," according to former City Manager Fred Mortensen. The ever-increasing proceeds are committed to to beautifying the downtown area and contributing to civic causes. In addition to the restoration and maintenance of Main Street, a wide variety of local community service organizations benefit greatly from festival proceeds.

Pumpkin Weigh-Off

The well-known kickoff to the festival is the Safeway World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off which is held on Columbus Day every year. The Weigh-Off helps to demonstrate the importance of agriculture to the economy of San Mateo County. Pumpkins weighing more than 1,000 pounds are brought by proud growers and their families each year to the Weigh-Off.
The Festival is traditionally held on the weekend after Columbus Day in October during prime pumpkin-picking season. The festival features rustic pumpkin patches, harvest-inspired arts and crafts, homestyle foods, blockbuster entertainment on three stages, a Haunted House, giant weigh-off champion pumpkins, world-class pumpkin carvers, children's contests, and the Great Pumpkin Parade. Admission is free.
Offering something for everyone, the Half Moon Bay Art & Pumpkin Festival has become a tradition for families and friends who come each year to enjoy one of California's oldest, biggest and most popular festivals.