Tom and I love to go to community festivals.  One of the things that is hard about working most weekends is never getting to go to these community events.  However, one of them was close enough that we were able to go after work.  Consequently we spent time at the 31st Annual Confluence Pumpkin Fest.

Confluence a small town of 800 people about 1/2 hour from Fort Necessity.  I wrote a little about it when I wrote about riding the GAP trail from Ohiopyle to Confluence and eating at the River’s Edge Cafe.  Ranger Mike also lives in Confluence and invited us to park at his house while we were at the Pumpkin Fest.  Not knowing how busy the festival would be, we took him up on his offer.

The Confluence Pumpkin Fest is a pretty big event for a little town.  It goes on for three days from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. with all kinds of special events scheduled.  The park and town square are filled with vendors, food trucks, and singing groups.  Special events include a largest pumpkin contest, poster contest for the kids, car smashing, hay rides by Boy Scout Troop 150, a classic auto show, and The Great Pumpkin Race 5K.

Tom and I went after work on Friday, arriving around 6 p.m. and the place was hopping.  Parking spaces along the street and in church parking lots were all filled.  We parked at Ranger Mike’s house and then walked the short two blocks to the Pumpkin Fest.

We started by scoping out the setup, deciding where we wanted to eat.  There were lots of booths with baked goods, pumpkin pie and pumpkin rolls being prominently featured.  The food truck with the longest line was the Chinese food truck.  Tom and I were surprised about that, but maybe people in Confluence don’t get Chinese very often.  We settled on a food truck that had a variety of fried and barbecued foods.  I got a corn dog and Tom got fresh-cut fries.  Both were delicious.

We listened to the Rugg Band while sitting beside the railroad tracks and the river.  Then we headed for the Bruster’s Ice Cream truck where I got a scoop of mint chocolate chip with some hot fudge sauce on it.  Tom helped me with the hot fudge sauce.  We looked at some of the crafts, enjoyed seeing the town at its best, and then headed home.

The Confluence Pumpkin Fest was a wonderful little festival in a delightful small town.  Visiting it made us feel like we were returning to our small town roots.  We had a great time.