KEENE — Keene Pumpkin Festival organizers announced Wednesday the festival will not be in the red this year.

This is the second year Let it Shine Inc. has run the popular, but historically financially flailing event.

“The new organizers of the Keene Pumpkin Festival had the goal of putting the orange festival in the black and this is such a great indicator that we're on the right track,” said Ruth Sterling, event manager of Sterling Design & Communications.

The overall budget, including the festival and overhead, for 2012 totals $274,000, Sterling said. The festival needed $109,500 in donations and advertising, she said, as organizers this year expect to bring in $164,910 the day of the event including more than $30,000 in food and craft court fees. The day of revenue forecast also includes the $5 suggested donation of each adult attending.

Sterling said the donation is voluntary but is hoping that a fifth of the 80,000 people that attend the festival can chip in to ensure the festival can continue.

There are also two new attractions this year that charge $5 each, a ride on the Ferris wheel ride and a walk through the Haunted Alley.

Many of the attractions have been pre-sponsored, accounting for reaching the fundraising goal this early, Sterling said, including Markem-Imaje and Ted's Shoe & Sport sponsorship of the new Great Pumpkin Mile Race to take place the day of the festival planned for Oct. 20.

Price Chopper is sponsoring the Ferris wheel.

Downtown establishments and other businesses have contributed $14,680 to the festival.

“Last year was our first year of doing it and we went into it probably a bit naive in terms of fundraising,” said Let it Shine board president Mike Haines. “We came up short. We were in the red last year. This year we worked more aggressively on the fundraising piece before the festival and we reached that goal in terms of corporations, individuals and businesses in and around town, especially downtown.”

The Pumpkin Festival has a far reaching impact, Haines said. In fact the organization received a letter this week from a family in Connecticut that comes to Keene every year for the event and included a donation of $1,000.

Sterling said this is the first year the state has kicked in with assistance, after she confronted Gov. John Lynch at a community luncheon last Dec.

“You know we have a program here that gives the state a quarter of a million dollars each year and in exchange you give us a bill for $10,000 for state troopers,” she said she told the Governor.

Sterling said when the festival was short funding last year she looked into who benefits from the festival and how they could be persuaded to help. She found out that over the Pumpkin Festival weekend the state earns about $250,000 in meals and rooms taxes from Keene. So the state has a huge financial interest in the festival continuing, she said.

Lynch gave her his cell phone number and connected her to the right people, she said.

This year state police worked hard to create a schedule around the festival that would not include troopers working over time. Sterling said she expects their bill to be $4,000 lower this year.

The state also plans to loan the festival some highway safety equipment that would have cost organizers $2,000 to rent this year.

That's a total of $6,000 toward the budget from the state.

“It's huge that we're finally realizing some direct support from the state of New Hampshire,” Sterling said. “It's not like this is costing the state. It's a way of operating more efficiently and not having to be billed for it.”

Organizers said donors are still welcome after publications are printed and would be included on the website, pumpkinfestival.org.

The attempts of both the 22nd annual Keene Pumpkin Festival and the 2nd annual Great Highwood Pumpkin Festival of Highwood, Ill., to break the Guinness Book of World Record for the most lit jack-o-lanterns is to be featured on a one-hour cable television special “Pumpkin Wars” set to air on Halloween.

mpierce@newstote.com