I had no idea that the largest pumpkin festival in the world takes place in Germany! A few weeks ago, a group of our friends here in Munich decided to get in the Fall spirit and took a day trip to Ludwigsburg for the Pumpkin Festival. We had a group of eight people, so we took two cars. Ludwigsburg is right outside of Stuttgart, about a two hour drive from Munich. You can also take the train from Munich, but it takes a bit longer.  The festival takes place on the grounds of Schloss Ludwigsburg and it is a fall wonderland for kids and adults.

Each year is a different theme, and this year’s theme was Pumpkin Forest. SO cute! All of the pumpkin art at the festival revolved around this theme. The weather was amazing the day we went! Actually it was super warm and not very fall like, I think the high was 80°F.

Some of the activities and events at the festival include pumpkin carving, a pumpkin boat race (canoeists try to steer hollowed-out giant pumpkins across the lake as fast as they can), German Pumpkin Championship, European Pumpkin Championship, and on the last day of the Pumpkin Festival, the winning pumpkins are honored with a horrific pummeling. The winners of the Weigh Off are smashed to bits and visitors can take home some of the giants’ seeds.

In addition to all of the events going on, you can buy every kind of pumpkin, gourd, or squash imaginable. Seeds for all sorts of rare kinds of pumpkins are also for sale.

My favorite part of course was the food and drink! Literally every pumpkin food imaginable was available at this festival: pumpkin seed bratwurst, pumpkin soup, pumpkin ravioli, pumpkin spaghetti, pumpkin streusel, pumpkin ice cream etc.

For drinks the choices were pumpkin beer, pumpkin wine, and pumpkin prosecco. My favorites were the pumpkin ice cream and the pumpkin prosecco. You can also buy pumpkin noodles and wine to take home. Our group purchased several bottles of the pumpkin prosecco and enjoyed them on the grounds….I don’t think any pumpkin prosecco actually made it home to Munich! 😉

There was also live music! While we enjoyed our pumpkin treats in the shaded eating area, we listened to the live music.

After walking around the festival, we made our way back to the cars…but not before stopping for some photos! Of course I had to take the opportunity to take a photo of my adorable dog next to a pile of pumpkins. And of course Lola was over it after about five seconds…in fact, I think she was judging me.  (Thanks to our friend Patrick for snapping some of these!)

We had such a great time at the Ludwigsburg Pumpkin Festival and it definitely put us in the Fall spirit.