Pumpkin Festival: Annual Romulus celebration set

The 22nd Annual Romulus Pumpkin Festival will celebrate the history and spirit of the community tomorrow and Saturday, Sept. 20 and 21, with entertainment and events designed to please all ages and interests.
Some of the most popular events at the parade are the annual culinary contests which allow area residents to submit their finest canned goods, pies and sunflowers for honors.
The winners of those various contests will all be announced as part of the festival at 12:30 Saturday, Sept. 20 in the Hospitality Tent.  Entries in those contests celebrating the harvests of tomatoes, green beans, pickles and fruits delivered their entries in the contest to the Romulus Senior Center today. 
Winners in the canning contest last year included July Leland who won first place for her canned tomatoes and Jim and Sandy Chapman who won second-place honors. The Chapmans also won first place for their canned honey and another second place honor for their canned pickles. First place for canned pickles last year was awarded to Patrick and Liz Webb.
This year, pie entries were limited to pumpkin, sweet potato, peach and apple pies. 
And judges will again this year be looking for the largest pumpkin grown in Romulus and the largest and tallest sunflower in the contest.  The Sunflower growing contest last year was won by Ray and Sherry Dubiski.
Another popular “competition” is the voting for the cutest baby and the cutest pet which allows residents to cast their votes for the various entries in the contest. Those winners will also be announced on Saturday.
Boy Scout Troop 872 will host a Pancake Breakfast from 8-11:30 a.m. Saturday, and there will be a White Elephant Sale at St. Aloysius Church, a Car Show, craft and food vendors, a Kid Zone of inflatable, a Pumpkin Painting Tent, children's games, the famous Punkin' Chuckin' contest and the Spaghetti Dinner from 5-6:30 p.m. Saturday at Community United Methodist Church.
The Pumpkin Pub will be open serving beer and wine from 6 p.m. until 1 a.m. both Friday and Saturday.
Highlighting the musical entertainment this year will be the DTour Band performing on the Main Stage Friday and Just A Few Cats performing on the Main Stage on Saturday.
Just A Few Cats was co-founded by songwriter Alven Garrett and American Idol winner Ruben Studdard, who will not be performing..
Saturday entertainment on the stage will also include Step in Line from 2:30 until 3:30 and Karaoke with Jeff Lowery from 5-7 p.m.
Festival organizers said they expect large crowds for the annual community event celebrating fall again this year.
The downtown festival is a celebration of friends and family and is a harvest celebration that generates enthusiastic spirit and regenerates the sense of community, committee members said.
(A complete guide to the Romulus Pumpkin Festival is included in this edition of The Eagle.)