Port Elgin Pumpkinfest is celebrating its 30th anniversary with a Canadian record.
Todd Kline of Shawville, Quebec captured his third-straight Pumpkinfest crown, weighing in the heaviest pumpkin ever grown in Canada, topping the scales at 1,877 pounds.
Kline says he was surprised his giant pumpkin was able to set a record, adding he had estimated the pumpkin's weight in the upper-1700s using measurement techniques.
The spotlight during the international weigh-off belonged solely to Kline, who also captured the squash category, with a 1,117-pound green giant.
He says it's a nine-hour drive from his home to Port Elgin, but there's nowhere else he'd rather set a Canadian record.
"It's the biggest event in Canada and I've got lots of friends down here and we like make a weekend of it, do the travelling, stay for the whole weekend and have a little party," says Kline.
The festival kicked off on Saturday morning with the annual celebrity pumpkin seed spitting contest, which was won by Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound MPP Bill Walker.
While Pumpkinfest continues to draw upwards of 50,000 people to Port Elgin throughout the weekend and pumps millions of dollars into the local economy, Walker says the festival also keeps the area connected to its rural roots.
"It's about agriculture, that's what our whole area always has been, to me it always will be, certainly Bruce Power is a big part, as well, but agriculture is the roots of our community and this keeps that alive," says Walker.
Port Elgin Pumpkinfest continues Sunday with the local growers weigh-off.
Kline with his winning squash, which topped the scales at 1,117-pounds.
Nathan Veitch of Port Carling, Ontario with his Canadian record cucumber, which weighed in at 12.23-pounds.