Colorado's Giant Pumpkin Season Ends on Fountain's Main Street This Year

On Saturday, October 17, the last scheduled giant pumpkin weigh-off of Colorado's 2026 season happens on the grounds of Fountain City Hall at 116 S. Main St. The event is called Gourdzilla. It opens the City of Fountain's Harvest Games, which run from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and include four events this year instead of two. The organizers' event listing on the Great Pumpkin Commonwealth site, filed under its Plains & Rocky Mountains weigh-off category, calls it "our first annual Weigh Off" at the "6th annual Harvest Games."

That one line changes the role of the giant pumpkins downtown. For the past few Octobers they were set dressing. This year Fountain hosts the weigh-off that closes the state circuit, and the two weigh-offs before it have already produced pumpkins over 2,000 pounds.

Last October, the giants were just for show

Fountain's pumpkin weekend is newer than most residents probably assume. In October 2024, a City of Fountain representative told the Pikes Peak Area Council of Governments about Willy Tuz carving pumpkins October 11 and 12 and a Nightmare on Main Street dance at City Hall on October 12.

In 2025 the day took a clearer shape. The Fountain Valley Times listing for Oh My Gourd showed it running 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 116 South Main, with Tuz carving and the Rocky Mountain Giant Vegetable Growers, or RMGVG, bringing giant pumpkins to display. The evening was a separate event. The paper's Nightmare on Main Street listing ran 5 to 9 p.m., with the band Exit West, a Boo Brew tent, food trucks, photo booths, and costume contests for kids, adults and pets.

So the growers already knew this block. Last year they parked their pumpkins on it for people to look at. This year the same group brings a scale, and the pumpkins compete. The city's own 2026 annual events list still shows the old two-part version, "Oh, My Gourd & Nightmare on Main Street Dance," on October 17. The expanded program appeared later, in a City of Fountain Facebook post that went up about a week before the event.

Fountain is the third stop on a three-stop circuit

RMGVG's 2026 schedule has three Colorado weigh-offs this season, one per Saturday. Fountain comes last.

Andy and Amy Corbin of Cheyenne, Wyoming, won both of the first two stops. Their Aurora pumpkin came in at 2,060 pounds, and the next entry on that table weighed 1,402, a gap of more than 650 pounds. A week later at Fort Collins, they posted a 2,224-pound pumpkin. These numbers come from the BigPumpkins.com GPC results tables. Those tables say results are not official until the GPC steering committee verifies them.

What 2,224 pounds means

Some comparisons help with that number. RMGVG's record holders page lists Colorado's state record giant pumpkin at 2,190 pounds, grown by Brad Bledsoe in 2024. The Fort Collins winner weighed 34 pounds more than that. Because the Corbins grow in Cheyenne, though, their pumpkin is a Wyoming entry weighed in Colorado, and it does not appear as a Colorado state record on that page.

Globally, the heaviest pumpkin on the 2026 GPC table so far is 3,156 pounds, grown by Ronnie Wallace of Greene, Rhode Island. The Fort Collins pumpkin sits 25th on that same worldwide list. So the bar going into Fountain is about a ton and change. That's well short of the world's best, and right at the top of what this region has ever recorded.

RMGVG's rules for Gourdzilla are strict. Growers must arrive by 11 a.m. or be disqualified. Load-in runs 10 to 11 a.m., and the weigh-off runs 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. "We must keep events on schedule," the RMGVG site says. If you want to see the giants come off the trucks, aim to arrive before 11.

The Pikes Peak region's weigh-off has moved around before

Fountain is not the first town in the region to host one of these contests. In 2019, KOAA reported that the area's annual weigh-off was moving from Old Colorado City to Smith Farms in Falcon. In 2022, KOAA's coverage from Peyton described Smith Farms as hosting "Colorado's only official GPC (giant pumpkin commonwealth) event in the Colorado Springs area this year."

What's new for Fountain is the location. For the first time, the weigh-off is on a city's main street instead of at a farm or a historic shopping district. On the 2026 schedule, it's the only stop south of Denver. For anyone between Security-Widefield and Fort Carson, the nearest scale on this year's schedule is a few blocks from City Hall.

How Saturday runs on South Main

Every event is at or around Fountain City Hall. Here's the order the organizers describe:

1. 10 to 11 a.m.: Growers load in for Gourdzilla. Anyone who misses the 11 a.m. check-in is disqualified.
2. 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.: The weigh-off. The GPC listing says Gourdzilla "will kick off the day."
3. Through 5 p.m.: Oh My Gourd features professional carvers working on giant pumpkins. The 11th annual Pumpkinpalooza patch offers families a free pumpkin and free family photos, according to the event's promotion. Vendors and food trucks stay all day.
4. Evening: The Nightmare on Main Street street dance with live music, plus the Boo Brew beer tent.

The carving lineup has Food Network credits. Willy Tuz, who has carved at Fountain's pumpkin events before, appears in Food Network's Outrageous Pumpkins contestant profiles as a Grand Junction vegetable sculptor. This year's promotion also lists Jamie Louks and David Smith. Food Network's Halloween Wars Season 15 page describes Louks as a sugar artist who has reached the show's finale twice. It describes David "Pablo" Smith as a champion pumpkin artist who also carves ice.

A few things weren't announced as of October 12. The city hasn't named a band for this year's dance or posted its exact start and end times. Last year's dance ran 5 to 9 p.m. with Exit West. Entry fees and prize details for Gourdzilla weren't published in the materials we reviewed either. Check the City of Fountain website or its Facebook page closer to Saturday.

After the scale, the fall calendar stays close to home

Once the weigh-off is over, most of the season's remaining events are at the same address or a short drive away.

The Trunk-or-Treat time doesn't match across the city's own sources. Its Facebook post asking for vendors says 4 to 6 p.m., and its annual events list says 5 to 7 p.m. Confirm with the city before you plan around either time. The Nature Center events and the craft show are run by El Paso County Parks. Bark in the Park, which used to be on the city's calendar, is listed as cancelled for 2026.

For more events around the region, see our weekly roundup of things to do in Southern Colorado and our 2026 Halloween guide to haunted houses in Colorado Springs. For what changed in Fountain over the summer, see what was new in Fountain this August.

At Pulse Real Estate Group, we follow Fountain's calendar because a lot of our clients live within a few blocks of South Main. If Saturday's weigh-off has you wondering what your own Fountain home is worth, get a free home valuation from our local team.