'The Pumpkin Festival of Spalding, 15th October 2005'
(a.k.a: H.G. Wells - 'The Time Machine')
Recently I visited Spalding to go to the 'Pumpkin Parade and Festival' (not the same as Halloween - that's a whole other event). I have visited Spalding several times before, but due to the nature of the event I took a person from normal society as a 'control' for the visit:
It became apparent after a short while that the event drew stark comparisons with the 'The Time Machine', a novel by H.G. Wells, written 1898, later adapted to film in 1960 (and remade in 2002). The story is about an inventor who builds a time machine, played by Rod Taylor in the 1960 version:
He travels forward in time millions of years through world war, ice age and volcanic eruptions to find himself in a utopistic future where everyone appears happy and all humans lounge around eating fresh fruits. However, it quickly emerges that life has no meaning as some years before a group of humans elected to live underground and evolved into cannibals called 'Morlocks'. They breed the humans above ground for food, sounding 'air-raid' sirens every so often which causes the humans to walk through a door to their underground fate:
When questioned, it transpires that approximately, the humans believe that it is still war time due to some outdated 'talking rings' that recorded the last words of civilisation before the nuclear holocaust. When the air-raid sirens stop, they say "nothing to worry about, all clear..."
I won't spoil the ending but the original is worth watching...
So, back to Spalding's pumpkin festival... The was a Pumpkin market, selling only Pumpkin produce:
There was also a 'Pumpkin coach' pulled by a light-up reindeer which apparently was made specially (new for this years festival - not from Christmas - that's an entirely separate float with a sleigh, but they did use the same designer):
and some 'local' bands on a special stage:
Also, traditional entertainment:
Here we are enjoying the market:
It was very busy, with over 6000 people coming from miles around and filling the area the size of a postage stamp:
Now, as you can see everyone was enjoying the festival, leaving their worries behind. After all, it could have become more anarchic than utopistic.
But what's that I hear?... the pumpkin parade is starting?... Off rolls the pumpkin coach, and as if the air-raid sirens had sounded EVERYONE follows. I managed to get to the front of the parade as it circled the town, like the confused time traveller trying to work out what was going on. Unlike the time traveller, who although had a time machine didn't have a camera (because is was 1898), I managed to get some snaps of the Morlocks with their glowing eyes:
So, the pumpkin coach was first, followed by children with drums and xylophones playing 80s pop songs (for some reason):
So that was normal carnival stuff I guess, but where are the floats from local companies?... nope that was it... the rest of the parade (which went on for miles) was made up of the townsfolk and basically everyone there (one person had a trolley for their pumpkins):
"Follow, follow..." they chanted, "pumpkin, pumpkin...". Luckily we had pumpkin beer to keep us sane (the pub was doing take-out):
and then it continued back through the town, "follow, follow...":
Without spoiling the film too much if you haven't seen it, the ending was a bit like this, as the Morlocks didn't like fire that much:
And then, as if by magic, there was "nothing to worry about, all clear..." and every single person went on their way:
Just a normal town again... apart from being littered with smashed pumpkins...