Last year I attended the Boykins PumpkinFest and had a genuinely good time.

That might seem like I am damning the occasion with faint praise, so please bear with me.

Having covered festival after festival for about 30 years, in my experience they all tend to run together. When I scheduled my vacation last month, I did so in part to coincide with the Isle of Wight County Fair. Frankly, I decided I could use a year off, and don’t regret it.

For a festival to stand out, it needs a certain … ummm … I don’t know what, which is English for je ne sais quoi.

But when I drove out to Boykins last year, all the ingredients for that something extra were in place.

The weather was terrific, everyone was in a great mood, there was plenty to see and do and enough healthy pumpkins to be judged worthy by the Great Pumpkin Himself.

You’ll recall that autumn had such a dreary beginning last month. Based on the forecast so far, those of us who attend this Saturday should be in for another colorful wingding, which starts at 10 a.m..

STEPHEN H. COWLES is a staff writer at The Tidewater News. He hopes to see you at the festival and take your photograph for the paper or Western Tidewater Living magazine. Contact him at 562-3187 or stephen.cowles@tidewaternews.com.