Field workers in the Manteca countryside are busy cutting stems and tossing pumpkins into tractor-pulled flatbed trailers.

It’s a sure sign Manteca is ready to celebrate everything pumpkin given this area generates almost 70 percent of California’s pumpkin crop.

And what better way to do so than at the Manteca Pumpkin Fair that is celebrating its 40th year as a Sunrise Kiwanis event on Saturday, Oct. 4, and Sunday, Oct. 5, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. both days in downtown Manteca.

This year’s event besides having more than 200 vendors, free kids games, and free entertainment features:

* A car show on Sunday, Oct. 5, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the 100 block of Main Street. Entry fee on the day of the show is $30. For details go to SunriseKiwanis.org

* Pumpkin Fair Movie After Dark featuring The Nightmare Before Christmas at Wilson Park on Saturday, Oct. 4, at 6:30 p.m. The free entry event features a disc jockey and games. Food will be available at a snack bar.

* A pickleball tournament at the Center Street courts. Entries have already closed.

* A pumpkin decorating contest with categories for kids, the scariest, and most original. It takes place Sunday, Oct. 5, in the community garden next to the tennis courts across from the library. Bring your pumpkins by between 10 a.m. and noon. Judging takes place at 2 p.m.

Almost seven out of every 10 pumpkins sold commercially in California go rumbling out of Manteca on trucks from now until the end of October.

Fields around Manteca yielded 37,500 tons of pumpkins from 2,520 acres last year with a gross value of $19.9 million.

For additional information, go to sunrisekiwanis.org