On the first Saturday of October, the grounds of First United Methodist Church in Olde Towne Slidell fill with the sounds of a town that has decided autumn has arrived: ponies clip-clopping, inflatables thumping, a DJ working the crowd, and somewhere in the middle of it all, a pumpkin being flung through the air.
The Olde Towne Pumpkin Festival returns Saturday, Oct. 3, 2026, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 433 Erlanger Ave. It is free to attend, open to anyone who shows up, and pointedly not scary — the whole affair is built for children under 12, which means the ghosts and ghouls that take over St. Tammany later in the month are politely asked to wait their turn. For a lot of families in East St. Tammany, this is the unofficial start of the Halloween season.
What makes it unusual for a church pumpkin fest is the lineup. Alongside the expected face painting, pony rides, games and sweet treats, there is "pumpkin chunkin" — the crowd-pleasing spectacle of launching gourds across a field — plus robotics demonstrations, a haystack hunt, a cupcake walk, a Velcro wall, a scavenger hunt with stamp cards that kids fill in at booths for a prize, and a Youth Entrepreneur Village where young vendors sell their own wares. The St. Tammany Parish Library sets up, and first responders bring a fire truck and a SWAT vehicle, with a Firefighters Challenge for kids to test themselves against. A Help for Families Community Fair rounds out the day.
The festival is cashless. Visitors buy tickets at the entrance — $1 apiece, at two locations on the grounds — and spend them at the food and activity stations, with most attractions running somewhere between one and ten tickets. Sponsors and vendors are still being recruited, and the organizers note that youth entrepreneurs are welcome to apply for booth space alongside established businesses.
The cause behind all of it is older than the festival by nearly three decades. The East St. Tammany Rainbow Child Care Center was founded in 1983 as a mission project of two Slidell congregations — Aldersgate United Methodist and Macedonia Baptist — to address a straightforward problem: working families in the community needed affordable child care, and there wasn't enough of it. The vision belonged to a man named Bill Speers. In 1987, Rainbow was invited to become a United Way Partner Agency, a status it has held ever since. It moved to its current home at 121 Kingspoint Blvd. in 1990 and today serves children roughly one through five years old, carrying a four-star rating from Louisiana's Quality Start child care rating system.
Dionne Graham, the center's executive director, has described the work in terms of the families it holds up. "For the love of the children," was how Ellen Lamarque, chairwoman of one of Rainbow's other fundraisers, summed up the effort — a phrase that fits the pumpkin festival just as well. The center describes its mission as strengthening working families through quality early childhood education, and it functions as the parish's only nonprofit child care center serving low-income families and families in crisis.
That mission is not cheap to run. In its most recent filing with the IRS, for the fiscal year ending June 2025, the East St. Tammany Rainbow Childcare Center reported roughly $644,000 in total revenue, with contributions making up about 57 percent of it and program services nearly 30 percent. Net fundraising — the category the pumpkin festival feeds — accounted for about $67,000. The rest comes from a patchwork of grants, donations and events, which is why a free festival with a $1 ticket booth matters more than it might appear.
The pumpkin festival itself has been part of that patchwork since 2012, which makes the 2026 edition the 13th annual. Over that run it has become one of Slidell's reliable fall traditions — the kind of event that doesn't require a ticket in advance, a reservation, or a costume, only a Saturday and a willingness to let a child throw a pumpkin.
Proceeds from the day benefit both the Rainbow Child Care Center and United Way. Sponsorship levels, vendor booths and volunteer slots are open; the organizers can be reached at 504-638-1890 or [email protected], and details are posted at rainbowccc.org/olde-towne-pumpkin-festival.
For families in Olde Towne, the calculus is simple. The festival is free to walk into, the money spent inside stays local, and the pumpkin chunkin is included in the price of admission — which is to say, nothing at all.