World Championship Punkin' Chunkin' Contest

By: © Nelson Taylor 2008

Festival Location: Lewes, DE, USA

Festival State: Delaware Festivals

Festival Type(s): Bizarre Festivals , Bizarre Sports Events, Food Festivals

What do small-town mechanics and machinists and welders do with their free time? They get drunk and think about how to throw shit real far. But these half-baked engineers add their own special flavor to the American bar scene. Between arguments over whose round it is, far-flung ideas, numbers, and designs get scribbled on Pabst-soaked napkins. This might as well be a barstool rule at watering holes around Lewes, Delaware, where, odds are, you'll find people trying to create machines to hurl pumpkins. That's because since 1986, Lewes has been the sight of the World Championship Punkin' Chunkin' Contest, held annually the first Saturday in November. The goal: chunk that sucker the farthest without using explosives. Everything else is fair game.

But what about outsiders? Should anyone with a punkin' chunkin' contraption be able to waltz into Lewes and not only take the crown but beat the world record and be recognized by the Guinness Book?

Milton, Illinois, is the home of Matt Parker and his team of 9-to-5ers who created the Aludium Q36 Pumpkin Modulator, which looks more like a freaking tank than a device for winging melons. We're talking air compression theory here, not some spring on a medieval manure catapult, but a weapon with the go-go to give a pumpkin a 4,026-foot boost. That's almost a goddamn mile! No wonder Lewians are a little broken up. "At first I don't think they were very happy," Parker says. "There was a little animosity between the teams, but they took it pretty well. Now we call each other and send Christmas cards."

Pumpkin Chunking may not be a respected American sport right now, but Parker and crew are doing all they can to spread the good word. They even recently demonstrated the Q36 on Letterman, where they chunked pumpkins at New Jersey from the Manhattan side of the Hudson River. Can you say squashed? Admission for the contest, which attracts about 20,000, is $5. To enter your own pumpkin chunking machine, event fees range from $5 to $50.