The town of Damariscotta is seen from Newcastle across the harbor. The town landing, downtown, and a classic white steeple can all be seen in Maggie Weiss’s winning Pumpkinfest t-shirt design.
Maggie Weiss, of Bristol, submitted the winning t-shirt design for this year’s Damariscotta Pumpkinfest & Regatta. The Damariscotta Pumpkinfest & Regatta is held every October during the holiday weekend. This year’s festival will be October 8-11.
Maggie Weiss is a 23-year-old artist and business woman who recently received both her BFA ‘20 and MBA ‘21 from Alfred University in Western New York.
Her design was selected from among 40 entries, a strong showing from the local artist community for the annual Pumpkinfest T-shirt Design Contest. The judges were the Pumpkinfest volunteers who attended the June 17 Pumpkinfest planning meeting. The winning design won a $500 prize.
Weiss’s inspiration for the Pumpkinfest design was to create an image celebrating the Regatta, where costumed boaters in pumpkin boats race each other in the harbor to an appreciative crowd.
“Growing up in the area it’s been fantastic to see Pumpkinfest reach the size it has, and the positive effect it has on local businesses,” says Weiss.
“Throughout high school I was a volunteer for KidsZone,” she says. “Even while working, the positive, community-minded, atmosphere of the whole weekend made it one of my favorite times of year. I chose the Regatta as the focal point of my design because it is well known as the flagship event of Pumpkinfest, and the crazy notion of racing pumpkins down the river was the original idea that began this whole thing.”
The colors chosen for this year’s coveted Pumpkinfest t-shirts and hoodies are grey or black in adult and children’s sizes. These and other Pumpkinfest gear will be available for sale in late August at Supplies Unlimited, Main Street Grocery, and Hannaford-Damariscotta, as well as on the Pumpkinfest website.
Damariscotta Pumpkinfest & Regatta is a 501(C)(3) organization whose mission is to promote education to citizens of all ages regarding the specific agricultural science required to grow giant pumpkins and to provide local non-profit organizations with opportunities for dissemination of information on their activities and fundraising.
