Drought conditions failed to keep 70 giant pumpkins from lining Main Street in Damariscotta and Newcastle for the 10th annual carving and painting competition on Friday, Oct. 7.

Artist Susan Bartlett Rice said she had grown two pumpkins that had weighed close to 400 pounds although she had watered them less this year.

“I didn’t want to run the well dry. I guess I was just lucky,” she said. She and her daughter Amelia decorated one pumpkin on the theme of Alice in Wonderland and the other as a clam digger.

Cartoonist and horror illustrator Glenn Chadbourne said his pumpkin topped 1,100 pounds in spite of the drought. A regular exhibitor at the King Eider’s Pub location, Chadbourne was not sure where his design was headed but it was sure to fit the horror genre.

LIsa Oullette of Edgecomb, Crystal Miller of Brunswick and Lynn Owen of Brunswick entitled their piece “Sweden or Boil” to put a humorous touch on the the political issue of Sweden’s boycott of Maine lobsters.

Lobster artist Andrew Cook from Cumberland carved a pumpkin to look like a lobster roll.

“I draw and paint lobsters for a living. I have never done anything like this,” said Cook.  

Frieda Hanlon of Star’s Jewelry said she has carved a pumpkin each year since the first Pumpkinfest. Lincoln Academy students, members of the National Art Society, worked on their cactus piece decorated with snakes, scorpions, and lizards all made from gourds.

Rachael Schuster of Jefferson put a fantasy touch on her piece asking residents to write-in Oswald Cobblepot from TV’s Gotham for mayor.

Pumpkinfest volunteer Jean Krause said she was running into artists and visitors coming great distances to this year’s event.

“An artist came from Boston. They are from all over,” said Krause.