HALF MOON BAY, Calif. (KRON) — The 50th annual World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off took place Monday in Half Moon Bay, and a world-record-setting pumpkin weighing 2,749 pounds won it all, according to contest officials. Travis Gienger, who brought the gargantuan pumpkin from Minnesota, will take home the $30,000 prize money.
Organizers brought a new, heavier-duty scale to Monday’s pumpkin weigh-off because they expected a pumpkin to weigh over 2,560 pounds, which was the winner presented by Gienger last year.
The previous world record sat at around 2,700 pounds for a pumpkin weighed in Italy in 2021. Contestants at Half Moon Bay hoped to beat that, earning them $30,000 for a record breaker. If the record wasn’t broken, the first-place pumpkin would have still earned a hefty $9 per pound.
Early arrivals to the weigh-off Monday were pumpkins from the Napa and Sacramento areas. However, the humungous record winner traveled all the way from Minnesota.
The weighing of pumpkins began Monday around 7 a.m. before the winner was crowned in the early afternoon.
