Committee members met in the local hall on Friday night to spend hours turning a trailer-load of pumpkins into about 200 litres of soup.

"We all bring our knives and our chopping boards and start at three o'clock in the afternoon and finish about 10 o'clock that night," committee member Jeanette Sheridan said.

"And it's such fun. We laugh and we have other lovely people bring us dinner in."

Generally not soup, though.

"Yeah, I can't look at it for a little while afterwards," Mrs Sheridan said, with a laugh.

But pumpkin soup is exactly what the thousands of people who descend on the little 150-person village north of Canberra want.

Pumpkin Festival president Gary Poile said last year 8000 people showed up, in miserable weather. With a relatively balmy 19 degrees forecast for Sunday, Mr Poile is confident they will at least match if not better that attendance this year.

Now in its 12th year, the festival has been a raging success for Collector and raised thousands of dollars for community projects, from local health services to a new fence for the cemetery.

City folk can get their fill of the country, whether it's marvelling at the heaviest pumpkin (last year's winner was a 267-kilo monster), trying the hay bale maze, eating a pumpkin scone, making a scarecrow or just taking in the magnificent views, particularly the poplars and their turning leaves at the entry to the town. There is also live entertainment and more than 100 stalls.

"The festival is all about a bit of colour and fun. We don't take ourselves too seriously," Mr Poile said.

And the people of Collector are another drawcard.

The pumpkins for the soup are grown by the enigmatic Ted Burkitt, a man in his 80s, one of those invaluable locals who love to contribute to their communities but hate any kind of recognition. But that didn't stop him from being named Gunning Citizen of the Year in 2012, after a nomination from Mrs Sheridan.

"He gave me what for but I said, 'No, you've got to be recognised'," she said.

And don't try asking for the pumpkin soup recipe – it's Carolyn Hannan's, the admin manager at the local public school, and it's a secret. The team jokes that the secret to a good soup is to "make sure the pumpkins come from Collector", but Mrs Sheridan does have one little tip.

"I think the cumin in it just makes it."