""I'll look into the crowd, and I'll see somebody," says Farmer Mike, nickname of San Jose's Mike Valladao. "It's funny because I'm staring at them, and it's like, 'I'm not hitting on you. I just like your eyebrows. I want to get your cheeks into a pumpkin.' So sometimes people in the audience do end up on my pumpkins - or at least pieces of them do.""
"After learning wood carving from a carousel horse craftswoman he met on San Francisco's Pier 39, Valladao knifed his first public pumpkin at the Half Moon Bay Art & Pumpkin Festival in 1986. Since then, he's become a yearly fixture at the Bay Area festival - which this year runs Oct. 18-19 - flourishing his blade on an elevated stage, transforming lumpy gourds into Louvre-worthy art."
"A running favorite is the Great Pumpkin Parade on Saturday, featuring revelers in homemade costumes dragging the year's winner from the Safeway World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off. (The world record to beat is 2,749 pounds, set in 2023 at the festival by Minnesota's Travis Gienger.) There are four stages of music and performances, costume and pie-eating contests, a half-marathon and a 10K, and a smorgasbord of orangish food and beverages."
Mike Valladao, known as Farmer Mike, has carved pumpkins publicly since 1986 after learning wood carving from a carousel horse craftswoman on San Francisco's Pier 39. He carves large pumpkins live with a Buck knife and often incorporates audience features into his designs. The Half Moon Bay Art & Pumpkin Festival runs Oct. 18-19 and includes the Great Pumpkin Parade, the Safeway World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off, four stages of music and performances, costume and pie-eating contests, a half-marathon and 10K, and numerous pumpkin-themed food offerings produced largely by local nonprofits.
Read at The Mercury News
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