T-L Photo/GAGE VOTA With umbrellas in hand, several Pumpkin Festival attendees brave the elements to enjoy the annual Antique, Classic and Custom Car Show at the Barnesville High School parking lot.

BARNESVILLE — The final day of the 60th annual Barnesville Pumpkin Festival was a wet one, but that didn’t deter the celebration.

Although rain has been needed across the region for weeks, the precipitation that occurred throughout a majority of the festival was a hindrance for festival organizers. festival President Tim Rockwell said that even though it was soggy, no events were canceled during the four-day street fair.

“We’re here rain or shine,” Rockwell said. “It would be our luck that we’ve had a drought all summer and then we had the rain from this hurricane come in.”

Rain held out for the King Pumpkin Weigh-Off on Wednesday and the opening ceremonies on Thursday, but Friday brought a downpour. Rockwell said that even with the heavy rain, he was pleased with the attendance not only on Friday but each night of the festival.

“I think people come out because they know that the Pumpkin Festival is kind of the last local festival around here before the season starts winding down,” he said.

The rain was no deterrent for classic car enthusiasts, either, with several classic car and truck owners braving the conditions to participate in the Antique, Classic and Custom Car Show located at Barnesville High School’s parking lot. The show had a wide variety of classic and custom vehicles from the 1920s all the way up to a brand new Tesla Cyber Truck. Patrons showed up with umbrellas in hand to admire the unique vehicles while enjoying food from Izzy’s Food Truck and Catering LLC and ice cream from Kirke’s Homemade Ice Cream.

“There’s still cars at the car show. We have a fiddle and banjo contest going on. That’s always a good time,” Rockwell said.

He added that there were several bands providing live entertainment on multiple stages as well as a cornhole tournament.

While some attendees braved the conditions to visit outdoor attractions, the festival continued to provide a plethora of indoor activities where people were able to stay dry. One of the indoor events that provided shelter was the Watt Center Book Sale. The annual book sale is a fundraising initiative where the Watt Center for History and the Arts sells used books donated to it throughout the year.

According to Ohio.org, “The Watt Center for History and the Arts provides a museum to preserve and display artifacts illustrating Barnesville’s rich historical record of business, industry, agriculture, and the surrounding area. Art displays and classes are offered to encourage appreciation and creativity. Visit this unusual building that served as offices for the Watt Car & Wheel Co., founded in 1863.”

“Every year people donate their used books, and boy oh boy do we have a lot this year. We put them out mostly categorized. We try real hard,” Watt Center secretary Mary Sidwell said.

She added that the sale is the main fundraiser the center does each year.

The sale had steady traffic throughout the entire festival, which she believes could have been due to the rain, and the sale isn’t a small fundraiser. Sidwell said that on the first day before the festival even began, the center had a line of about 40 people waiting for the sale to start. She laughed when recalling how customers were lined up before she even arrived, so she snuck in the back door of the center so that nobody would think she was cutting in line.

Throughout the year the center doesn’t have regular business hours but holds events and encourages groups who are interested in viewing the center to contact it online to schedule a tour.

“We’re here to promote local history, and the more kids that we see come through, the better,” Sidwell said.

Even with the less than ideal weather, the festival brings thousands of people into the village of Barnesville. Pumpkin Festival Vice President Keith Williams said on Friday that he believes the festival acts as a homecoming of sorts to several people who have moved away. Rockwell added that this year the Belmont County Tourism Council livestreamed the King Pumpkin Weigh-Off on Wednesday evening, and while the livestream was occurring the Voice of the Festival John Rataiczak asked viewers to comment where they were viewing from; that led to people from all over the country commenting about the state they were in.

“We had people comment on the live feed from Alaska and Hawaii,” Rockwell said. “That’s the neat thing about technology, but we still try to keep a hometown vibe for the festival.”