DRIPPING SPRINGS, Texas — To kick off the first day of fall, the community of Dripping Springs celebrated with its third annual Pumpkin Festival.
The festival has been held at the Pound House Farmstead for the last three years, as organizers have been raising money to restore the historic house.
“To really kind of educate everybody on the property, bring them in, help them understand why we're fundraising, why it's important to really preserve some Texas history, it's been great,” said Christopher Durst, the co-founder of the festival.
The Pound House has been in Dripping Springs since 1854 and was the first settlement in town.
“This was the birthplace of Dripping Springs,” Durst said.
“It [the festival] brings back old memories of old times,” Hays County Deputy Constable Jimmy Zuehlke said.
Over the course of the festival, there will be over 30,000 pumpkins. Festival organizers get the thousands of pumpkins from Floydada, Texas, which is known as the "Pumpkin Capital of Texas."
But they don’t just throw the extras away when the festival is over.
"We donate all the hay, the leftover pumpkins, all the deer corn to the local ranchers and farmers in the area,” Durst said.
Organizers expect to see around 60,000 people during the course of the six-week festival, which runs until Oct. 29 with a different theme each weekend. The first theme was “Scarecrow Disco”, and some themes in the coming weeks include “Butterfly Jubilee”, “Celebration of Indigenous Tradition” and “Pumpkin Jamboree."
“You know, we do this event to really benefit the community,” Durst said.