Punkin Chunkin canceled for this year

Let go of the gourd. The Punkin Chunkin event has been canceled for this year.

Organizers announced Friday they'll instead start the event in its new Dover location in 2015.

Punkin Chunkin had been set to take place Oct. 24-26 at Dover International Speedway.

The event, held for years on a succession of rural Sussex County farm fields, was to have moved to the same grounds that host Firefly this year. After a volunteer filed a personal injury lawsuit in 2013 over an ATV accident at the 2011 Chunk, the farmer hosting it in Sussex County said he wouldn't let it return to his property.

Organizers had settled on the late-October date for this year's Chunk before they were certain where it would take place. As late as April, Huber said a move out of Delaware was still possible.

The event's membership didn't settle on the Dover location until early July, and ticket sales started in early September. More than 20,000 people attended the 2013 event, spread out over several days.

"Moving an event the size of Punkin Chunkin is not easy even when time is not a factor," said John Huber, World Championship Punkin Chunkin Association president.

Huber said the pumpkin-launching competition will instead return on Nov. 6-8, 2015, in Dover. Customers who had already bought tickets and camping passes this year will see refunds on their credit cards within two weeks, he said.

Poll: Will you miss the annual Punkin Chunkin competition this year?

Gary Camp, a spokesman for Dover International Speedway, said the postponement was due to several things, including permits, site layout, public safety aand emergency service planning.

"All along we were cautiously optimistic that the event would go on as scheduled," Camp said. "Ultimately, the logistics of trying to coordinate such a large established event in such a short time frame at a new venue became too difficult to overcome."

Both parties are committed to hosting the event in Dover, Camp added.

The very first Punkin Chunkin competition was a small event held near Lewes in 1986. Over the years, it grew much more popular, moving to ever-bigger fields and routinely featured in a show on the Discovery Channel.

Contestants in the most powerful air cannon division have inched ever closer to propelling a pumpkin for a mile. The current record, set by the American Chunker team last year, stands at 4,694 feet, 586 feet shy of a mile.

The nonprofit event's proceeds support a variety of Delaware charities, including Autism Delaware, Meals on Wheels and the Home of the Brave veterans homeless shelter.

Contact James Fisher at (302) 983-6772, on Twitter @JamesFisherTNJ or jfisher@delawareonline.com.