Halloween is over. Costumes are either put in a closet for another year or donated. Decorations are taken down. But pumpkins are left out on the doorstep to rot until their designs are unrecognizable. What can be done to dispose of these coveted October decorations that suddenly become useless and annoying?
Eli Kirk, the web design and development company, may have a solution. The company hosted its fourth annual Slash Bash on Nov. 1 at Harward Farms in Springville. The festival brought thousands of pumpkins and hundreds of people together to smash, shoot, or otherwise destroy pumpkins by any means possible.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=__oTzV3gAyk
Emily Franson, the company's spokeswoman, who has helped plan and carry out the Smash Bash since its inception, spoke about the reasons for this festival.
'We're a creative agency,' Franson said. 'We have about 40 employees, so we do marketing, web development, design, strategy, branding and social media. We put this on really because we love our clients.'
The Slash Bash set up several booths and areas in which the guests could creatively destroy the pumpkins and have fun in an atmosphere of music, dancing and destruction. Among the venues, there was a booth that allowed for the guests to destroy pumpkins with a variety of objects, such as a baseball bat, a golf club, a sledgehammer or a machete.
In other areas, children could go 'pumpkin bowling,' where they rolled a pumpkin down a makeshift alley to knock over pins. In another section, guests could line up in a row and shoot the pumpkins with paintball guns, or watch as some of the employees launched a pumpkin catapult and fired a pumpkin cannon.
'When you get a chance to get together with a group of people and destroy some fruit, it's just random and awesome,' John Hinnage, a guest from Springville, said. 'It's fruit ninja in real life.'
All of the events were free for all guests, and the incentive was even greater for the lucky winner of the pumpkin pie eating contest, who won a $50 gift card to Tucano's.
'Everything's completely free,' Franson said. 'You could say we get a profit from having our brand out there in these events, but that's not really the point.'
After the three hours of pumpkin smashing, dancing and refreshments, the Slash Bash set up for its grand finale. Hundreds of pumpkins were dropped from a large crane onto various objects, including an old Saturn, a Port-a-Potty, a large boat, and finally, a camper set on fire.
'We wanted to celebrate all the crazy fun we have had this year with (our clients),' Franson said in an email. 'We're a creative agency, and we like to do odd things.'
With this new idea, no pumpkins will have to be left to rot on the porch again. Instead, a baseball bat should do the job.