Monday: Safeway World Heavyweight Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off

Will the world record go down in Half Moon Bay this year? No weigh? Weigh! Bring it on beefy, brawny, burly behemoths! The excitement is building in Pumpkintown as the World’s Greatest Gourd Growers and their titanic, mind-blowing Volkswagen-sized orange orbs hope to crush the world record on the morning of Monday, October 8 at the 45th Annual Safeway World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off –– in the World Pumpkin Capital of Half Moon Bay, California –– the kick-off to Half Moon Bay’s world-famousArt & Pumpkin Festivalwhich takes place October 13-14.

Weigh-off organizers and title sponsor Safeway are offering a world’s biggest top prize of $7 per pound. Also at stake are thousands of dollars in prize money doled out to the top 20 plus the big carrot: a $30,000 total mega-prize for a new world record pumpkin entered at Half Moon Bay –– considered the “Super Bowl of Weigh-Offs”.

A host of accomplished, grizzled veteran growers will be contending for the coveted title. The winner and champion mega-pumpkin also plays a starring role in the world-famous Half Moon Bay Art & Pumpkin Festival, Oct. 13-14 (including a free weekend at the posh, pumpkin-centric Ritz-Carlton on the stunningly beautiful Half Moon Bay coast).

To receive the planet’s best $30,000 world record prize, the grower must break and hold the world record at the conclusion of the Half Moon Bay weigh-off. If two or more growers happen to break the world record at Half Moon Bay, the prize money would go to the grower of the heaviest pumpkin. The current world record is 2,624-pounds set in 2016 at a weigh-off in Germany.

Defending Half Moon Bay champion Joel Holland’s gorgeous and gargantuan 2,363-pound weigh-off champion mega-gourd set a then new North American record (since broken this past weekend by Steve Geddes 2,528-pounder at a weigh-off in New Hampshire) and obliterated a formidable field of heavyweight contenders in winning the 2017 Safeway World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off.Holland, from Sumner WA, is expected to return to defend her title and contend for the $30,000 world record prize.

Beauty will share center stage with beefy brawn — a special $500 prize will be awarded to the “most beautiful pumpkin” as judged by the audience based on color, shape and size. Additional special prizes include: Biggest California Pumpkin (sponsored by Origin 360) –– $1,000; Biggest Coastside Pumpkin –– $500.

It’s always a sight to behold. Every year on weigh-off reckoning day the streets around downtown Half Moon Bay are lined with sagging, overloaded trucks crammed with burly orange behemoths quietly awaiting their place of destiny in the worldwide media spotlight or the Libby's canning factory, their massive roots firmly planted in buckets of water to prevent weight loss as fans ooh and aah at their sheer, stunning enormity.

Using forklifts and harnesses, the monster gourds will be carefully placed on a 5-ton capacity digital scale under the watchful eye of officials from the San Mateo County Agricultural Commissioner's Office of Weights, Sealers, and Measures.

The official weighing will take place on Monday, October 8th from 7 a.m. to 11 a.m. on the I.D.E.S. Grounds, 735 Main Street in Half Moon Bay.

The champion pumpkin, along with the top four pumpkins overall, will be on display at the Half Moon Bay Art & Pumpkin Festival on October 13-14 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

WHEN: Monday, October 8, 2018. Weighing will take place from 7 a.m. to 11 a.m.

WHERE: IDES Grounds, 735 Main Street, Half Moon Bay, California.

INFO-LINE: 650-726-9652

WEBSITE: http://weighoff.miramarevents.com

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