It's the 2013 Tomato Harvest Festival!!!!! The Tomato Harvest Festival is this forums oldest and biggest contest. It is an opportunity for forum members around the world to have fun together, and something anyone can participate in even if you don't have a pleo. The last few years have seen a decline in contest participation, not just for the Tomato Harvest Festival, but all contests in general. And last year I did a really lousy job as forum admin in running the events and contests. So first off I want to express my apologies to all of our older members who entered last year. (You won't be forgotten!
) And second I want to let everyone know I'm going to try a lot harder this year, and we may well be doing things a bit different. With that said . . .
Since the beginning of recorded history (about six years ago), the fields around Weedovia have always been blessed with abundant wild tomato vines. And every spring and fall, the local pleos relied on the abundant harvest gathered from these wild vines so that they could enjoy tomatoes (and tomato related food like spaghetti and pizza!) throughout the year. They would go out twice a year to pick the tomatoes and bring them to the village. This traditional gathering of the tomatoes quickly grew into a community event, and from there into true full-blown harvest festival. And with the introduction of the spaghetti trees and pizza by the Great Pepperoni
1, a real zest was added to the festivities.
Of course in modern times, with the addition of a carnival, rides, games, live band, and midnight movie on the town square, it has become more of a social event, attracting pleos from around the world. But all the pleos still go out and harvest the tomatoes and bring them to the town's communal tomato press for the traditional squashing of the tomatoes and the making of the tomato sauce. And many of these activities became challenges and finally became contests.
This spring's festival is just around the corner.
But I guess this is why everyone should have bought a calendar!
This spring's festival is the weekend of April 5th to the 7th.
Not sure what's going on? Well, then you may want to catch up by reading the 2009 - 2012 festival topics and the Bob the Pleo comic strips on this board. But as a quick summary, the town's park is turn into the festival grounds, with the carnival rides and games, a stage and dance floor, and lots of vendors and food booths! It starts on a Friday night with the carnival and music from a live band, and at midnight the pleos end the day with an outdoor movie. Saturday has everyone out in the fields gathering the tomatoes, with the judging in the evening, and back to the carnival. Sunday is the big tomato squashing where the sauce is made using the traditional foot-stomping method like the great Italian wines.
And at the conclusion of the festival, awards are always handed out to the pleo who gathers the most tomatoes, finds the largest tomato, has the best looking tomatoes, makes the best tasting spaghetti sauce, and for the best use of tomatoes as an article of clothing (i.e., costume). The last few years winners can be seen by visiting the Bob the Pleo comics. We had some great fun, and some wonderful costumes!
And, of course, since Weedovia isn't a real place, and we can't really all attend or send our pleos in person, you can celebrate at home with your pleo by following along with activities and by posting here in the forums. The live band is comprised of member's pleos. So, if your pleo can play an instrument, be sure to post a picture or video and let us know! The band is always looking for new members!
The five main contests are as follows:
- For the "most tomatoes" you want a picture of you pleo with a bunch of tomatoes. Please no photoshopping here.
- For the "largest tomato" you want a picture of your pleo with a really, really big tomato . . . You get the idea. No photoshopping here either, but you can be creative as to "the tomato".
- For the "best looking tomato" you want a picture of your pleo with a really good looking tomato. Now, on this one, we do allow photoshopping. And if you're good a that kind of stuff, you really don't even need a pleo as you can photoshop the pleo into the picture too! .
- For the "best use of tomatoes as an article of clothing" you want a picture of your pleo dressed up tomato style . . . if you look back over previous years, this can be interpreted as dressing up you pleo "with tomatoes" or "as tomatoes", and this can be a costume or real tomatoes. Here is where you can be creative as you want . . . except no photoshopping.
- For the "best tomato sauce", we're talking a tomato based spaghetti or pasta sauce. Here you can be as simple as posting a recipe, but as they say, since a picture is worth a thousand words, a photo of the finished product goes a long way in helping. As as another hint, Bob seems to really like spicy stuff, and since in Weedovia pepperoni and meatballs grow on bushes, they are vegan approved.
This year we are adding a couple of events to the festival which create a some extra ways to enter the contest as well. The first is the bard's contest for all those wordy pleos, the second is a crafts contest for all those creative type pleos.
- For the Bard's contest, the theme this year is "A pleo is _______". What you need to do is write a poem or original joke about that statement that fills in the blank. In the past we've had haiku contests and limerick contests, this time we're leaving it open. However, you'll need to keep it somewhat short (no more than 12 lines), so no Homeric epics.
- For the crafts contest, you need to create a craft that others can do. What we're looking for is something someone can print off their computer and make from one or more pieces of paper using scissors, tape (and/or glue). And don't forget, the craft should also relate to pleos and/or the tomato festival.
All entries should be posted to this topic. The deadline for entries is officially midnight Pacific Daylight Time April 7th, but we're not sticklers . . . Judging probably won't start until sometime Monday afternoon. We usually select the top three winning entries from all the entries (instead of one from each category), but since Kat has three very nice custom "festival capes" she made for last year's winners which I failed to pick last year (bad admin!
), we're going to take all of last year's entries and add them to this spring's contest entries and add her three capes to some very nice tomato jewelry designed for this year's contest and hand out five prizes this year!
For those interested in participating in the contests and still aren't clear, please refer to the
contest rules topic on this board. For some ideas and/or to get a better understanding, you can check out the
2012 festival topic,
2011 festival topic,
2010 festival topic, or the
2009 Fall festival topic (also on this board). You can also read up on the Bob the Pleo comic strip!
Post your entries here!
I'll be posting more info here in the next few days . . . but you've only got two weeks to get ready!
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Topic: 2013 Tomato Harvest Festival (Read 70135 times)