This is BIG PUMPKIN Country
Windsor, Nova Scotia, Canada

It was on the Windsor farm of Howard Dill that giant pumpkins evolved. A four-time Guinness Book of World Records holder and developer of the Dill’s Atlantic Giant pumpkin seeds, Mr. Dill is credited with launching the international craze of growing giant pumpkins.

With the evolution of giant pumpkins came the creation of the Great Pumpkin Commonwealth, and Windsor is one of the 20 official weigh-off sites in North America. For almost two decades, pumpkin growers across Atlantic Canada, and from as far away as New York State, have brought their giant gourds to Windsor to compete in the annual Pumpkin Weigh-off, held the first Saturday in October.

While many locals have by now become blase about giant pumpkins, the Dill Family Farm has become one of Windsor’s main tourist attractions. An official Goodwill Ambassador for the Province of Nova Scotia, Mr. Dill has welcomed visitors from the four corners of the globe.

In 1999, local citizens Judith Thompson and Helen Romans, interested in tourism, approached Mr. Dill’s son, Danny, about the possibility of expanding on the tourism shoulder season and raising Windsor’s profile as the World Pumpkin Capital. Danny suggested racing pumpkins across Lake Pezaquid – and another international craze began to germinate in Windsor.

In the first year of the event, 1999, The Pumpkin Regatta, with an operating budget of $50.00, attracted about 2,000 skeptical spectators who turned out to watch five brave – and no doubt equally skeptical – participants attempt to manoeuvre their hollowed-out giant pumpkins across Lake Pesaquid.

So novel was the idea of racing giant pumpkins that local merchants and local media were quick to get on-side. The 1^st Annual Pumpkin Regatta attracted national attention, and Windsor – "The Little Town of Big Firsts" – could now claim another first – Giant Pumpkin Racing!

In 2000, the Atlantic Pumpkin Growers Association, which organizes the annual Pumpkin Weigh-off, partnered with The Pumpkin Regatta on promotional material and assisted in the acquisition of giant pumpkins for Regatta participants. By 2001, The Pumpkin Regatta had grown into a major attraction, with enquiries from across Canada and the United States.

Early in 2001, it was obvious to all involved that Weigh-off and Regatta events were complimentary, and the Windsor~West Hants Pumpkin Festival Society was founded.