Winning pumpkin weighs in at 468 stone

The winner of the heaviest pumpkin at this year’s Virginia Pumpkin Festival was five-year-old Darragh Cullen from Cornafean, County Cavan. His pumpkin weighed in at a whopping 297.5kg (656 lbs), or almost 47 stone! The presentation of the prizes were made by RTÉ’s Mary Kennedy, who was in the town to film the festival for Nationwide that will be aired on RTÉ on Halloween night, Friday, October 31 at 7pm.
The festival, for the first time, was held in the new Virginia Show Centre, that proved to be invaluable due to the inclement weather conditions.
The programme of events started on Friday night with a 'Forest of Fears’ walk in the naturally spooky Deerpark Woods where over 2,500 people were scared out of their wits. The festival organisers sought the expertise of artist Sharon Payne who developed a most scary experience enjoyed by the thousands who attended. As usual the highlight of the weekend was the Sunday parade and fireworks.
When the light was starting to fade the Grand Festival Parade was a wonderful spectacle colour and pageant. The parade included some 40 local teenagers from the local sports clubs and Virginia College who were part of the parade. When the parade was over the spectators were led down to the shores of Lough Ramor for a spectacular fireworks display. On Sunday night Virginia turned into a fancy dress town with over 2,000 revellers dancing in the Virginia Show Centre for Ireland’s largest fancy dress party.