CRETE, NE — Welcome to Pumpkin Town.

That’s the moniker they adopt in Crete each year in early October when the city hosts its Great Pumpkin Festival. The weekend-long event features programming for all ages and offers one guarantee: a free pumpkin for everyone who wants one.

That effort requires lots of of organization.

“It’s a total community effort," Crete Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Jack Cochnar said. "It starts early in the spring with the planting and it really does take the whole community to get this done. We have volunteers throughout the the whole thing preparing the patch, planting, doing the cultivating.”

Cochnar helps organize the festival. He says the city used to host a Blue River Festival years ago but stopped holding the event. In the last decade, Crete started the Great Pumpkin Festival and it’s grown every year.

“For the last seven years it’s just been building and building and building," Cochnar said. "We’ve really taken ownership of it.”

The weekend starts with a community fun run and the new kids and pet parade on Saturday morning, there’s a cruise night on Saturday and the main events on Sunday. The popular zipline, pumpkin pie eating contest and pumpkin drop all return to Crete and craft and food vendors will be set up around town.

Cochnar says the influx of people helps out local businesses, but it’s mostly about the fun.

“I think it’s a really good time," Cochnar said. "It’s a chance to get out in the fresh air, just have a good time and make a memory.”

The free pumpkins come from this community patch at Old Mill Park. An area farmer also grows pumpkins on his land and donates them to the festival. Volunteers will help harvest them from both plots.