For one Saturday each October, the stretch of Main Street in front of Fountain City Hall turns into something between a county fair, a street party, and a pumpkin-growing championship. The Harvest Games runs from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Oct. 17, 2026, at 116 S. Main Street, and admission is free.
The event has grown, year by year, into a full day of programming, helped along by community participation and sponsorships. "We want to have a place for our community to come to, to just be themselves," Carneal told KOAA.
The anchor of the day is the giant vegetable weigh-off, which kicks off at 11 a.m. and this year is run in partnership with the Rocky Mountain Giant Vegetable Growers. The club traces its roots to 2006, when a hailstorm destroyed the prize pumpkin plant of Gary Grande, then known as "The Wiz." Wanting more growers to compete and share information with, Grande started ColoradoPumpkins.com, and the Rocky Mountain Giant Vegetable Growers grew out of it. In 2016 he handed the club off to a board of dedicated growers, which now runs it. The group sanctions weigh-offs across the state, with categories for the heaviest, prettiest, and ugliest pumpkins, plus tomatoes, sunflowers, long gourds, green squash, and more.
At the Harvest Games, the weigh-off is branded Gourdzilla, and it is the first time the club has staged a weigh-off at this event. That matters for anyone whose main interest is seeing a pumpkin the size of a small car: Carneal recommends arriving early, because while some of the giants stay on display through the day, not all of them will.
Throughout the afternoon, professional carvers will be working on giant pumpkins. Three names are on the bill: Willy Tuz, Jamie Louks, and David Smith, all of whom have appeared on Food Network's Halloween Wars or Outrageous Pumpkins. Tuz is a vegetable sculptor from Grand Junction who has been in the carving business for close to two decades; he told WesternSlopeNow that his first appearance on Outrageous Pumpkins helped him the second time around. For Tuz, the reward is not the finished sculpture so much as the audience. "The joy that we get, most of it, it's seeing the face of people, seeing the smile that they give us," he said. Smith, for his part, described a kind of collaboration with the raw material: "The pumpkin can actually do some of the work for you," he told KOAA, explaining that an unusual shape can suggest a creation rather than obstruct one.
New this year is Pumpkinpalooza, which joins the Harvest Games for its 11th annual edition. Families can pick a free pumpkin from a patch on site and get free professional family photos taken. Because space in the patch is limited, organizers ask families to reserve a time slot in advance through Eventbrite; on-site registration via a QR code is also planned, but signing up online beforehand is the safer bet. The patch runs from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Live music begins at 5 p.m., and the costume contest follows at 7 p.m., with the event wrapping up at 8 p.m. The evening portion is billed as Nightmare on Main Street, a street dance party. Carneal suggests bringing a jacket if you plan to stay into the evening, since Colorado October evenings cool off quickly after sundown.
Food trucks and local vendors will be selling food, baked goods, crafts, and other items. "There will be places to spend money if you choose to," Carneal said. "Otherwise, the event itself to get here and come is completely free."
Parking is the one logistical wrinkle. Part of Main Street in front of city hall will be closed for the event. Carneal points visitors to nearby side streets, the area behind city hall, and the vicinity of the library, with overflow parking near Peaks N Pines Brewery. Accessible parking spaces and access ramps will be available in the area. Given that downtown Fountain's side streets are not built for festival crowds, allowing extra time to find a spot is advisable, and posted restrictions should be followed.
Fountain sits between Colorado Springs and Pueblo, a small city whose downtown has been the subject of ongoing revitalization efforts. Events like this one are part of that push, drawing residents into a walkable core rather than a suburban parking lot. The Harvest Games also functions as a showcase for local businesses, with sponsors including Chris Hodges at American Pacific Mortgage, Patrick Henigan of Direct Insurance Services, and Home Advisors Group's Bryce O'Brien and Danielle Graham, alongside Fountain Up and the City of Fountain.
For a free event with no tickets and no capacity limit, the appeal is straightforward: a giant pumpkin weigh-off is a genuinely odd spectacle, professional carvers working at scale are worth watching, and the whole thing is designed so that showing up is the only requirement. Additional updates are posted on Fountain Up's Facebook page.