Overview The Half Moon Bay Art and Pumpkin Festival closes historic Main Street, 25 miles south of San Francisco, for a free weekend every October in the town that calls itself the World Pumpkin Capital, and the heaviest pumpkin from the world championship weigh-off rides down that street in the Great Pumpkin Parade with its grower. In 2025 the weigh-off went to Brandon Dawson of Santa Rosa with a 2,346-pound pumpkin. Around it run four music stages, a juried art show, a Kids Zone, contests and a Sunday road race. The all-volunteer Half Moon Bay Beautification Committee puts the festival on and uses it to fund grants to local nonprofits and college scholarships for local high school students. On site The festival's site lists 275 artists and craftmakers working in glass, ceramics, metal, fiber, leather, wood and jewelry, and on Sunday local makers set up as Made on the Coast between Mill Street and Kelly Avenue. The Main Stage books regional bands across folk, rock, reggae, bluegrass and country; the Gazebo Stage at the south end runs acoustic, jazz and folk; the Family Stage hosts the pie-eating contests. The top four weigh-off pumpkins sit on display, and the Take 5 Lounge shows live games on a big LED screen. Saturday opens with a pancake breakfast and a costume contest before the noon parade; Sunday opens with a half marathon, 10K, 5K and kids' fun run. Audience The festival says its visitors dress up for it in Halloween costumes and go looking into every corner of the street, and it describes most of them as active - hikers, cyclists and fitness-class regulars. The Kids Zone, the costume contest and the Family Stage are built for the families that make up a large share of the crowd, and entry is free. Talent and Influencers Parade grand marshals have included Joe DiMaggio, Willie McCovey, Steve Young, Hunter Pence, Matt Williams, Rich Aurilia, J.T. Snow and the astronaut Karol "Bo" Bobko. Farmer Mike, billed as the Pumpkin Picasso, has carved giant pumpkins into three-dimensional sculptures from a raised stage at the festival for more than 35 years. Brand presence Almost every attraction on the street carries a naming right: each of the stages, the Kids Zone with two banners over the street, the giant pumpkin display, Farmer Mike's carving stage, the Take 5 Lounge and a pumpkin-carving exhibit by the main entrances where visitors carve their own. The parade's presenting sponsor goes on the grand marshal's float and can enter its own float or walk staff in the parade; the festival does not usually open the parade to companies. Safeway became title sponsor of the weigh-off in 1990.