Punkin Chunkin canceled for second straight year

Jon Offredo and James Fisher | The (Wilmington, Del.) News Journal

WILMINGTON — For the second year in a row, gourds will not be flying through First State skies this fall. The 2015 World Championship Punkin Chunkin event set for Nov. 7-8 has been canceled.

"It is with a heavy heart that we announce the cancellation of the 2015 World Championship Punkin Chunkin event," a post read Thursday morning on the Punkin Chunkin Facebook page. "Unfortunately, despite the best efforts of our board throughout an exhaustive nationwide search, we have been unable to locate a willing insurer to adequately protect our host venue, our organization, our fans and our spectators."

Ricky Nietubicz, World Championship Punkin Chunkin Association president, confirmed the cancellation.

"It's a bummer," he said. "Fortunately there are a lot of other events that we've been able to grow nationwide at this point."

Dover International Speedway spokesman Gary Camp also confirmed the news, saying that “with about a month to go, I think they ultimately realized they weren’t going to have any luck.”

"There’s been a good amount of work done behind the scenes to prepare for the event," Camp said. But the speedway didn’t want to do much more without proof of insurance coverage, he added.

"The collective decision was made to halt planning for the event," Camp said.

This is the second year in a row the event, which draws thousands upon thousands of people to watch massive air cannons shoot pumpkins over large distances, has had to be canceled since moving from Sussex County, Del.

Punkin Chunkin has been seeking a permanent home since 2013 after the farmer hosting the longstanding event in Sussex County said he wouldn’t let it return to his property. He and the event’s organizers faced a personal injury lawsuit filed by a volunteer after an ATV accident at the 2011 Chunk. The lawsuit has since been settled out of court.

Before the event was canceled this year, there were concerns about how the grounds at the speedway could accommodate some aspects of the event. Chunkers removed the distance competition from the weekend's activities, acknowledging there wasn't room for the air cannons to propel pumpkins nearly a mile downrange, as there had been in Sussex.

Sen. Brian Pettyjohn, a Republican from Georgetown, Del., said Thursday he doubted Punkin Chunkin would ever take root again in Delaware. Pettyjohn sponsored a bill this year to cap pain-and-suffering damages at $1 million for personal injury lawsuits filed against non-profit companies sponsoring annual special events. The bill has not been discharged from the Senate Executive Committee, and a member of the Delaware Trial Lawyers Association testified against it in a hearing.

"It looks like we're going to lose the event here in Delaware, and we're never going to get it back," said Pettyjohn. "Maybe if this was a New Castle County event, we'd get some motion out of it. But it's been a Sussex County event, and it seems the magnitude of the event is lost on the other legislators."

Still, Pettyjohn said, he will renew his push to get his legislation to the Senate floor when the Legislature reconvenes in a few months.

"The other side said it's not going to be a problem, and here we are," Pettyjohn said. "I hate to say I told you so. But I told you so."