On Saturday, October 17, the pumpkins that will be paddled across Lake of the Commons the next day get lifted onto a scale at Stickmen Brewing Company, 19475 SW 118th Ave. That weigh-off is called Pumpkins and Pints. It runs from noon to 5 p.m., admission is free, and it features the Pacific Giant Vegetable Growers' Terminator Weigh-Off, with wood-fired pizza and craft beer on the side. The same club supplies the giant pumpkins for the races.
The Pacific Giant Vegetable Growers and the City of Tualatin host the West Coast Giant Pumpkin Regatta, which has taken place since 2004. It now draws thousands of people each year. In 2026 it covers two days and three sites: a brewery on SW 118th Avenue on Saturday, Tualatin Community Park at 9 a.m. Sunday, and then a festival around a lake with a separate stage schedule on each shore. Your Sunday goes better if you plan it by location.
Saturday: the scale at Stickmen
The weigh-off is the part of the weekend that is actually competitive. In the 2025 Terminator results, first place went to Jim Sherwood of Mulino, Oregon, whose pumpkin weighed 1,627.5 pounds. That figure comes from the BigPumpkins results database. We couldn't find it in local news coverage.
Runners have one Saturday errand. Tualatin Rotary holds packet pickup at Road Runner Sports in Tualatin on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., and there is an earlier session on Thursday, October 15, from noon to 7 p.m. One registration listing gives Thursday's date as October 16, but October 16 is a Friday this year. Rotary's own FAQ says October 15.
Sunday, 7:30 a.m.: the park before the lake
Sunday starts away from the Commons, at Tualatin Community Park on SW Tualatin Road. The Regatta Run/Walk 5K starts there at 9 a.m. The course runs on trails and over a footbridge, and it passes through Durham Park and Cook Park. The City says the approved route stays inside the park system, so the race doesn't need road closures.
New this year is a quarter-mile kids' dash for ages 4 to 12, starting at 8:45 a.m., just before the 5K. The Rotary FAQ lays out the rest of the morning:
- Online price: $45 until Wednesday, October 14, at 8 p.m. The early-bird price of $40 ended July 31.
- Race-day registration: 7:30 to 8:45 a.m., at $45.
- Kids 12 and under: free to take part. They need the regular fee only if they want a timed bib and a race shirt.
- Parking: the Oregon Nurses Association lot at 18965 SW Boones Ferry Road, and the Medical Office Building lot at Tualatin Road and Boones Ferry Road. Early parking at the Juanita Pohl Senior Center is limited. Overflow goes to the WES lot near the former Haggen shopping center.
Net proceeds go to Tualatin Rotary's youth programs and to scholarships for first-generation college students at Tualatin High School. The 5K starts an hour before the festival opens at the lake at 10 a.m.
Two stages, one lake
The festival runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Lake of the Commons, 8325 SW Nyberg St. It's free. Each side of the lake has its own stage and its own lineup, and only the races at noon and 2 p.m. appear on both schedules.
| Time | West side, main stage | East side, Nyberg Street stage |
|---|---|---|
| 10:00 a.m. | Welcome | |
| 10:15 a.m. | Tualatin High pep rally | |
| 11:00 a.m. | Jugglemania | Pillage People |
| 11:30 a.m. | Rose City Dancing Witches | |
| Noon | Pumpkin races | Pumpkin races |
| 1:00 p.m. | Jugglemania | Pillage People |
| 1:30 p.m. | Rose City Dancing Witches | |
| 2:00 p.m. | Pumpkin races | Pumpkin races |
| 3:00 p.m. | Kids' costume contest | |
| 4:00 p.m. | Close | Close |
Each east-side act performs twice, so if you miss the 11 a.m. set you can catch it at 1 p.m. The west side has the fixed-time events that families plan their day around. The costume contest is the main one, and signing up for it happens elsewhere. Sign-up opens at 10 a.m. at the information tent at the end of SW Nyberg Street, and each of four age groups is capped at 25 children: 3 and under, 4 to 5, 6 to 8, and 9 to 11. A family aiming for the 3 p.m. contest should be at the tent near opening time and then head to the main stage later.
The lineup has changed from last year. The 2025 preview in the Valley Times listed Mz Pearl, Jugglemania, PDX Dancing Witches and HoneyBees/ZomBees. The 2026 City schedule lists Jugglemania, Pillage People and the Rose City Dancing Witches. Last year's coverage also said the east side gained food vendors, art vendors and entertainment. This year's City page still lists food courts on both sides of the lake.
Between races, the grounds have pumpkin bowling, pumpkin golf, tic-tac-toe, checkers and decorating. There's also zombie target shooting, face painting, professional carving, a giant-pumpkin selfie station, a coloring mural and Regatta merchandise. The activities are free. Food and merchandise cost extra, and only service animals are allowed.
What's cooking along the water
The City lists 18 food vendors for the day: Arrow Coffee and Desserts, Asona Cuisine, Bondi Bowls, Cousins Maine Lobster, Four Corners Grilled Sandwiches, Handmade Vietnam Food, Hotdogs Alexis, Crust and Corner Pizzeria, Lee Farms, Lemon Smash, Pacific NW Kettle Corn, Phoenix Delights, Pilgrim's Roasted Nut'Z, Qualiserve, RB Wok and Grill, Rosa's Churros, The Chop Spot and Vertical Grounds Coffee.
The restaurants around the Commons offer sit-down options before or after. Rosie's Kitchen serves Mexican food at 8145 SW Nyberg St. Izumi Japanese Steakhouse is a few doors away at 8125 SW Nyberg St., and its ordering site lists takeout daily from 4 to 8:30 p.m. That window opens right as the festival closes. Brix Tavern, at 8187 SW Tualatin-Sherwood Road, offers brunch, reservations and online ordering. Farther along Nyberg Street is Baguette Bros, a Vietnamese bakery at 7028 SW Nyberg St. that opened this spring with a menu built on family recipes.
Getting to the lake without circling Nyberg
The City recommends carpooling, walking, biking and the shuttle. Its directions page, last updated in April, describes the plan:
- Pumpkin Shuttle, 9:30 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. Park at Kaiser Permanente, 19185 SW 90th Ave.; The Oregon Clinic, 19250 SW 90th Ave.; the Bellagio's Pizza lot, 8835 SW Tualatin-Sherwood Road; or the Hedges Green lot, 8639 SW Tualatin-Sherwood Road. The shuttle drops you near Floor & Decor, two blocks from the lake. At Hedges Green, the City asks visitors to follow the Regatta parking signs and stay out of spaces reserved for customers.
- Free bike valet, 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. It's at the corner of Nyberg Street and 84th Avenue, across from the food court.
- ADA parking is at 8460 SW Nyberg St., on the southeast corner of Nyberg and 84th.
- Public lots around the lake are marked on the City's map.
The shuttle runs 45 minutes past the festival's 4 p.m. close, so you can stay for the last race and the costume contest and still get a ride back.
The new trail that stops before the Commons
One piece of Tualatin's 2026 trail work won't help on race day. The Nyberg Creek Trail opened with a ribbon-cutting on June 20. It runs 0.7 miles along the Nyberg Creek Wetland, from 65th Avenue to Sagert Street. Of the $4.5 million set aside for new trail connections in the $25 million Parks and Trails Bond voters approved in 2022, it used $1.6 million.
The city's master plan shows a second phase that would branch off before Sagert, pass under I-5, run past Tualatin Commons Park and end near Fred Meyer. "Phase two, that we're not on yet, that's gonna be where we go under I-5," Councilor Valerie Pratt told Tualatin Life. The city has no cost estimate for that phase. In March, project manager Kira Hein said there were no plans yet to pursue funding. For this October, the new trail stays on its own side of I-5, and the City's bike valet at Nyberg and 84th is still the listed spot for cyclists to leave their bikes.
One more thing running this month
The City also has a Regatta medallion hunt this year. A bronze medallion is hidden on City property, and the prize is a Regatta swag bag. The four clues come out on September 24, October 1, October 8 and October 15. The first clue is already out, and the second arrives Thursday. A finder has one week to redeem the medallion, and the hunt ends once it's claimed. If no one has claimed it by midnight on October 18, the night of the races, the contest ends with no prize awarded.
At The Portera Group, we follow weekends like this one because they show how a town actually runs. If you're weighing a move within Tualatin or nearby and want someone who knows which side of the lake the costume contest is on, we'd be glad to talk it through. Schedule a Strategy Session.
