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Kaukauna, Wisconsin

Right now is the best time of the year for your club or organization to look for potential new sites. Check Fall Festivals to see if their interested. Ask them if you can set up a giant pumpkin display. If they have a parade. Put the biggest pumpkin you can get in the back of a small pickup truck and be in the parade.
Try to show them the value a weigh off would have for their event. Make sure to have some banners and handouts about your club.

9/11/2015 11:08:37 PM

Kaukauna, Wisconsin

Getting prize money is always the tough part. Contact the Chamber of Commerce for sponsorship. At several of our sites we receive more prize money when the weigh off draws more street vendors. Also there maybe stores and business that would sponsor some of the prize money. Remember weigh offs have to be great entertainment value to be successful.
Good luck!!!

9/12/2015 8:16:22 AM

Colorado

thanks glen- we are getting a new weigh-off site established, can you please shoot me an e-mail, I had a few questions for you: peterjmohr@hotmail.com

9/12/2015 9:31:19 AM

Aurora

This is really good information and maybe we can establish more in our state as well!

9/13/2015 7:06:25 AM

South Bloomfield, Ohio

Very good thread Glen. I would only add that, if you decide to pursue a weigh-off site associated with a festival that you first have in place a committee dedicated to striving toward the same goal. It is next to impossible to establish a successful weigh-off by yourself, as there is much prep work involved and there are only so many hours in a day.

Communication between members of your committee is also vital in establishing credibility with a festival. If you meet with festival or city officials, be prepared with a mission statement, a history of your club if there is one, and printed or video materials of other weigh-offs which highlight the excitement. Develop a Facebook page and establish yourselves as a credible group.

It's a lot of work, but well worth it when you achieve success.

9/13/2015 9:06:11 AM

NE Arkansas

I wish there were more weigh offs in the south...

9/13/2015 4:02:54 PM

Central Illinois

apple and pork festival in clinton IL 100,000 thousand people attended last year in 2 and a half days but its the same time as Bengstons

http://www.chmoorehomestead.org/apple-pork.htm

9/14/2015 7:57:00 AM

Johnston, Iowa

Speaking of Illinois, I have friends in Peoria who attend the Pumpkin Festival in Morton, IL where there already is a giant pumpkin weigh-off. With the connection to Libby's I've always thought that might be a good candidate for a GPC weigh-off site.

9/14/2015 9:43:32 AM

Morton was a gpc site in 1990;s

9/14/2015 4:13:23 PM