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Twice a year the townsfolk of Weedovia celebrate the harvesting of the tomato crop.  The three day festivals occur the first weekend of April for the spring harvest, and the first weekend of October for the fall harvest.

The activities begin Friday night with a big outdoor carnival party in the town park, Saturday day is spent harvesting the tomatoes, ending with the judging and followed by the evening being a continuation of Friday night's carnival.  Sunday morning is the big tomato squashing at the town's tomato press, and ending with the official blessing of the tomato sauce and the spaghetti feast.

The Friday and Saturday night carnival is a time for the whole town to get together as one and have fun.  For the weekend, the town's fairground is strung with lights and turned into a carnival ground with booths and games and activities.  An open stage is set up by the town hall for the band with a raised dance floor.  And the back of the stage doubles as the screen for the outdoor midnight movie.  There is plenty of food and fun for all ages.  Entertainers, artists, and craftsmen come from around the land to show off their talents. 

A second stage is set up by the tomato press for contests and the tomato judging, with a large area reserved for picnic tables for the big spaghetti feast.


One of the two main events is the actual tomato harvest.   Early Saturday morning, everyone takes their baskets, carts, and wagons and goes out into the surrounding fields hunting for the tomatoes growing wild.  By the end of the day, the stage is overflowing with the piles of tomatoes.  A panel of judges awards the pleos for the most tomatoes found, largest tomato, best looking tomato, and best use of a tomato as an article of clothing.  The winning pleos are awarded baseball caps of honor and treated to free ice cream at the carnival.

As part of the Saturday night carnival, everyone in town is given a chance to bring a pasta dish for the rest of the town to sample.  Each pleo is also given the opportunity to vote for their favorite dish.  The pleo with the most votes, gets to be the "Festival Chef".

The second half of the festival surrounds the tomato squashing.  Like the grapes in the wine presses of old, all the harvested tomatoes are taken to the town's big tomato press where the tomatoes are thrown in and each of the town's pleos gets a turn at climbing into the press and squashing the tomatoes into sauce with their bare feet.  The winners from the previous day's judging get to go first, followed by the rest of the townsfolk as they feel lead.

The Festival Chef oversees the adding of the herbs and spices as the tomatoes are squashed, and decides when the tomatoes have been squashed completely into sauce.  At this time, the pastor of the town's church blesses the sauce and Lord of the Castle announces the start of the spaghetti dinner.

The final event is a big dinner where everyone gets to try the new sauce on a plate of fresh hot spaghetti.