Excitement as Portsmouth Pumpkin Patch gets ready to welcome guests for the first time

With Halloween on the horizon a corner of Portsmouth is being transformed into a pumpkin patch as organisers get ready to welcome guests this weekend.

The free Portsmouth Pumpkin Patch will be opening on Saturday, October 17 with thousands of pumpkins already set up onsite ready for family fun.

John Matthews, of Carnival Funfairs, is organising the event having contemplated bringing a pumpkin patch to the city for the last few years. With the nearest patches in Fareham, Hayling Island and Petersfield, John saw the opportunity to create a site closer to Portsmouth.

Based next to Farlington Playing Fields off the Eastern Road, the pumpkin patch will be open from 11am to 6pm both days this weekend before reopening between October 24 and October 31. The News visited as the set up was underway.

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John said: “We have been toying with the idea of doing it for about three years and so we have had the images in our head for a long time of how it should look. This year is the year we have put it into place and finding the right location has been key to it. You want it to be a big open field with trees in the background.

“The site is coming along perfectly, we are just getting the pumpkins in order. It is our first year so we are trying to take our time to make it look perfect.”

Over the last few days thousands of pumpkins have arrived at the site and arranged into displays.

John said: “We have put a lot of effort in, a lot of infrastructure, a lot of pumpkins. I wouldn’t like to count but we have a lot with sizes including extra large, large, medium and small, and munchkin small ones. Roughly I would say we have around 3,000 pumpkins in the field.”

Carnival Funfairs, based in Portsmouth, help organise events all along the south coast and in the city including Portsmouth Kite Festival.

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One of the important factors of starting the pumpkin patch for John was ensuring that it was a free event.

He said: “People can expect a totally free event and if they don’t want to spend any money they don’t have to. Things are quite bad at the moment and pockets are a bit tight so we are not charging for parking and we are not charging for entry. We are putting on a free show on Sunday with everyone welcome We are a family-orientated event and things can be expensive.”

People will have the option to buy pumpkins and their will be entertainment on offer such as fair rides and food stalls. There will be hot chocolate and coffee and food from Naan Stop and Crumbelicious.

John said: “There is lots of stuff to do, come on down and support this new event.”