From Thursday to Sunday, pumpkins filled the lawn of the Sycamore Courthouse.

The annual Sycamore Pumpkin Festival celebrated its 50th anniversary and featured a variety of different events including a parade, 5K run and a pumpkin decorating contest, said Jerry Malmassari, president of the Pumpkin Festival commitee.

The Pumpkin decorating contest is the festival’s oldest attraction.

“In 1956, Wally Thurow proposed a pumpkin decorating contest as a way to give kids something to do for Halloween,” Malmassari said. “It got really popular and expanded into the Pumpkin Festival you see today.”

The Sycamore Lions club runs the pumpkin contest every year.

“Kids in surrounding areas can each enter a pumpkin,” said Tom Moline, member of the Sycamore Lions club. “And we judge and award prizes.”

The pumpkins must be decorated according to one of the contest’s themes.

The contest features 31 categories, including things like weird and scary, happy and fancy, carved and current events, Moline said.

This year’s contest featured 954 pumpkins, Moline said.

The festival also featured new attractions this year to commemorate the anniversary.

“Just for this year, we’re having fireworks and a concert in the park,” Malmassari said. “We do special things like this for every anniversary of the festival.”

The streets of downtown Sycamore were filled with local organizations holding fundraisers.

“It started with just the Lions club,” Malmassari said. “Over the years, more organizations joined as a way to raise money, and to do something for the kids.”

The festival drew some visitors from other parts of the state.

“We’re here to see the pumpkins,” said Frankfurt resident Clarence Michaluk. “My wife is from Sycamore, so we come back for the Pumpkin Festival every year.”

Next year’s festival is already in the works.

“About an hour after the parade, the committee is meeting again,” Malmassari said. “We will go over what went well, what did not and plan for next year.”