Friends of Silvermont, the all-volunteer non-profit group that stages the popular annual Pumpkin Fest at Silvermont Park, has decided to postpone Pumpkin Fest 2024 to allow time to thoroughly review all aspects of the event to make it more efficient and sustainable.

“The Friends of Silvermont Board and our core volunteer group are, sadly, not immune to the passage of time,” stated Erik Rasmussen, past president of Friends of Silvermont. He continued, “Too much of what we know and what we do as an organization is related to the experience of a small group of people who have been leading and supporting it for many years, more than a decade for some.  Facing this reality, we have been actively working on the sustainability of this organization at many levels.”

It takes a massive nearly year-long volunteer effort to put on the four weekends of Pumpkin Fest.  Increasingly, this effort has fallen mainly on a group of 12-15 people, mostly in their 60s, 70s, and 80s. Inevitably, they are suffering volunteer burnout due to contributing hundreds of volunteer hours prior to and during the event.  Taking a gap year in 2024 is necessary to continue Pumpkin Fest in its current form. During that time, the organization will evaluate the event and document processes so that additional core volunteers can be trained. Additionally, the Pumpkin Fest team will devise ways to simplify the setup and takedown procedures.

In lieu of Pumpkin Fest in 2024, Friends of Silvermont is planning to have a small, one day event at Silvermont during the Heart of Brevard’s Halloweenfest.  The two groups are defining details for that event, but it will be during the daytime and have Halloween-themed activities for kids, mansion museum tours, and music.

Pumpkin Fest 2023 was a very successful fundraiser, raising 40% more money to support Silvermont as compared to 2022. The extra proceeds from 2023 are sufficient to continue Friends of Silvermont’s work supporting the park in 2024 and 2025.

There will be a lot of disappointment within Transylvania County and beyond due to this postponement. The Pumpkin Fest team is already conducting a thorough review of the event and all supporting aspects. They have already identified several improvements that will ease the burden on core volunteers.  “Now we have the benefit of time to think about what we do, how we do it and how to document and pass along that knowledge so that Pumpkin Fest can be better than ever in 2025 and continue as a Transylvania County tradition for many years to come,” said Rasmussen.