Venetucci Farm’s Pumpkin Fest runs every Friday, Saturday and Sunday in October, starting Oct. 2, at 5210 U.S. 85 in the Security-Widefield area of Colorado Springs.
Hours are 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. on Fridays and 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekends. The festival offers pumpkin picking, hayrides, a farm store, games and food and drinks.
The farm’s best-known tradition is the giveaway: roughly 2,000 kindergarteners from five school districts receive free pumpkins on their first field trip, organized with Colorado Youth Outdoors. The pumpkins are sourced from Milberger Farms in Pueblo.
Venetucci was founded about 90 years ago and once grew roughly 10,000 pumpkins a year in the 1950s and ’60s. After Nick Venetucci’s death, his wife Bambi left the farm to the Pikes Peak Community Foundation. A 2016 aquifer contamination from Air Force firefighting foam forced the operation to change course, and the Pikes Peak Real Estate Foundation took over management in 2019. Executive Director Sam Clark said the farm has “had to be resilient.”