Versailles Pumpkin Show Introduces Fall Festival Season In SEI

By Mike Perleberg Giant pumpkins will be weighed in Saturday at the Versailles Pumpkin Show. Photo courtesy Versailles Lions Club. (Versailles, Ind.) – Pumpkins – and lots of them – decorate the courthouse square in Versailles this week. The 114th Versailles Pumpkin Show begins Wednesday and runs until Sunday in the Ripley County seat. The street festival boasting rides, crafts, fair food and giant pumpkins is put on each year by volunteers with the Versailles Lions Club. This year, the Pumpkin Show is an official Indiana Bicentennial Legacy project. The festival will have a bicentennial theme with decorations throughout the courthouse square. The grand marshal of this year’s Pumpkin Show parade will be the great grandson of Versailles Pumpkin Show founder Alfred H. Beer, a local jeweler who organized the first festival in 1899. With that long history, the festival has been one of the longest running festivals in the state of Indiana. Wednesday’s opening night festivities include the opening ceremonies at 6:00 p.m. and a performance by the South Ripley High School Young Confederates at 6:15. The Pumpkin Show King and Queen Contest will start a 7:00. Hippie Fingers will perform at 8:30. On Thursday, the stage activities begin with live music by Chapman at 6:00 p.m. The Prince and Princess Contest starts at 7:00, followed by a pumpkin pie eating contest at 8:00. Bluegrass music by the Pumpkin Holler Boys will be heard from 8:15 until 9:00. A talent show happens Friday at 5:30 p.m. (find the registration form here). The Brooke Roe Band takes the stage at 8:30. Saturday brings a host of events starting with the big Versailles Pumpkin Show Parade at 10:30 a.m. Parade entries are encouraged to play up Indiana’s upcoming 200th birthday. Giant pumpkins will be weighed and awarded on the main stage at 12:30. Local high school cheerleaders will compete in a cheerleading contest at 5:00 at South Ripley High School. The Belairs play oldies on the main start at 7:30. A 21-and-over dance will wrap up the night at Tyson Activity Center from 9:00 until midnight. Sunday will allow kids to enjoys carnival rides for just one ticket per ride from 1:00 until 5:00 p.m. There is a community church service at 11:30 a.m. The Pumpkin Show 5K Run/Walk will start at 1:00 p.m. The Kramers perform gospel favorites on the main stage at 1:30. Find all the Versailles Pumpkin Show events and information at www.versaillespumpkinshow.com. Remember when 2007 Miss America Katie Stam visited the Versailles Pumpkin Show that year? Here's an archive Eagle Country 99.3 video of that special occasion.