Great Pumpkin Festival is Saturday at Gregory Park

The third annual Great Pumpkin Festival will take place from 1 to 4 p.m. on Saturday at Gregory Park.

Activities are designed for children and for children to participate with their parents or guardians. All activities are free.

Activities include three-legged races, sack races, wheelbarrow races, pumpkin rolling and, new this year, a screaming contest. Youth participants will be broken into age groups.

There will be drawings to participate in pie-throwing contests and pie-eating contests for youths and adults.

And there will be drawings for free pumpkins.

Crossing Arts Alliance/Flip Side will offer mask making, sidewalk art, haunted landscape crafts and creative creatures crafts.

The Deerwood Lakes Lions Clown Club will have clowns roaming the grounds and making balloon art.

The Lakes Area Senior Activity Center's Golden Years Gift Shop will have crafts for sale.

Food vendors include Giovanni's Pizza, the Northside Neighborhood Association and the Sunrise Safari Relay for Life team. Food for sale will include pizza by the slice, bars, caramel apples, hamburgers, brats, hot dogs, giant pretzels with cheese, nachos and giant decorated cookies. Coffee and hot apple cider will be for sale. The Relay for Life team will take orders for butter braids and pastry puffins.

In case of inclement weather, the Great Pumpkin Festival will take place in the St. Francis school gymnasium.

The event is sponsored by the Brainerd Parks and Recreation Department. Sponsors and volunteers include the Brainerd Kiwanis Club, Baxter Walmart, Winner's Trophy and Engraving, Bride-Light Marketing and Web Design and Brainerd International Raceway.