Half Moon Bay, California, got a heavyweight pumpkin champion on Monday, Oct. 12: Travis Gienger of Anoka, Minnesota, won the 53rd Safeway World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off with a gourd weighing 2,389 pounds.
That is 2,389 pounds of orange bragging rights—and enough pumpkin to make an ordinary bathroom scale consider a career change. The event’s official results list Gienger as the 2026 champion. He has won the Half Moon Bay contest multiple times, and this year’s prize calculation came to $21,501 at the posted rate of $9 per pound.
The weigh-off is a community tradition that brings giant-pumpkin growers to Half Moon Bay each October. The champion gourd is scheduled to join the town’s Art & Pumpkin Festival display on Oct. 17–18, giving festivalgoers a chance to see the heavyweight up close.
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