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It's Vols bye week in East Tennessee, so folks celebrate a different 'big orange'

Many East Tennesseans went to the 26th Annual Allardt Great Pumpkin Festival hopeful to see a record-breaking pumpkin.

Folks visited Allardt for a look at a different kind of big orange-- celebrating a pumpkin weigh-off Saturday.

All part of the 26th Annual Allardt Great Pumpkin Festival, where hundreds came out to enjoy the nice temperatures, tasty food and a big parade.


With pumpkin weigh-ins, it takes a forklift and a lifting crew to pick the pumpkins up and weigh them.

"It's so fun," Bruce Terry, one of the pumpkin competitors, said. "Gosh, you won't see this anywhere else, people everywhere, it's just a fun thing!"


This year's winner came from two Kentucky growers. That pumpkin weighed in at 1,594 pounds squashing last year's winner of a 1,472 pound pumpkin.

The world record for the largest pumpkin was set by Mathias Willemijns from Belgium in October 2016. That pumpkin grew to 2,624 pounds.

Many competitors begin preparing a year in advance. You can prepare for the real "Big Orange" as they'll be up against South Carolina next Saturday.

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