Hattiesburg Avenues hosted a pumpkin carving night at Keg & Barrel Thursday, Oct. 18. The event was one of South Mississippi’s largest pumpkin carvings full of music, food, prizes and costumes.
Community members of all ages came out to enjoy the night, including Mayor Toby Barker and his family.
Hattiesburg resident Kerri Vogt attended the Pumpkin Carving night with her daughter and said they had a good time.
“It was great. We love the community in Hattiesburg and all the events they put on,” Vogt said. “This fall we love going to Live at Five. We come [to Keg & Barrel.] We live in the Avenues, so we participated in the Avenues yard sale. Pretty much any excuse to do something fun, and we are there.”
The families and children thoroughly enjoyed dressing up and carving pumpkins. Each pumpkin had a different carving, showing the creative sides of each of the participants. From silly faces to unicorns and monsters, the evening was enjoyable to all.
The children loved carving pumpkins and showcasing their art skills. Savannah and Jackie were just a couple of the multitude of kids that attended and were thrilled to talk about their pumpkins.
“It’s really fun and interesting to see how everyone does their different pumpkins,” Jackie said. “[Savannah] came last year, and I have been coming since I was five.”
“And also it’s really fun to see all other people’s creativity with skulls and stuff,” Savannah said.
Both girls said that it only took them two minutes to carve their pumpkins.
The night brought a crowd to the Keg & Barrel with servers and staff bustling around to tend to event comers and regular Thursday night customers. Although it was a busy night, the staff of Keg & Barrel were not worried. Keg & Barrel’s general manager Diana Pennington said the staff is always thrilled to have community events and to bring people together.
“We love any event in the Backyard, especially an event that is for our community and for our neighborhood. We are happy to be a part of the Avenues of Hattiesburg,” Pennington said. “We love doing events in the Backyard, it is our favorite thing to do.”
The Avenues of Hattiesburg is actively working to bring together the community for different events each month. The Avenues’ next event will be Make a Difference Hattiesburg, which will be held on Saturday, Oct. 18 at 7 a.m. The event will encourage community members to join in on a city-wide clean-up. For more information, visit The Avenues of Hattiesburg on Facebook to find more family-friendly events.
