About 60 participants brought their pumpkins to the Ludwigsburg Pumpkin festival but as with any competition, there could only be one winner.
The annual event held in the city of Ludwigsburg, Baden-Württemberg is the highlight of the year for pumpkin growers who battle it out for the title of having grown the heaviest pumpkin. For them, the championship marks the end of a nail-biting growing period.
Second place went to a participant from southern Hesse, whose pumpkin weighed 644 kilograms. Still, the Bavarian team which came in first place for their pumpkin fell short of last year’s record of just over 900 kilograms.
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In its 18th year, Ludwigsburg Pumpkin festival is the largest of its kind across the world – beating even those held in the USA or Canada. It attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors. The number of pumpkins which descend on the city during the festival – over 450,000 – outnumbers Ludwigburg’s inhabitants by more than 5 to 1.
For spectators, the record-weighing of the pumpkins is a spectacle in itself. In addition to the use of forklift trucks, three helpers were required to place the mammoth vegetables on the scales on Sunday.
The winning pumpkins qualify to enter another competition also in Ludwigsburg on October 8th – the European championships for pumpkin winners. On November 8th, the massive pumpkins will be cut into smaller pieces and given out to visitors.
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Article source: https://www.thelocal.de/20171002/germanys-biggest-pumpkin-weighs-in-at-almost-800-kilos