Pumpkin Glow Night
Great Country Farms
18780 Foggy Bottom Road
Bluemont, VA 20135
This spectacular display of over 1500 carved and lit jack-o-lanterns is simply amazing. The magical moment when they cut the lights will take your breath away! Bring your carved Jack-o-lantern to enter in our carving competitions. Jack-o-lanterns are judged for Best in Glow, Scariest and Funniest in 3 classes: children in K-5, youth in grades 6-8, and adult carving. Warm yourself by the bonfire and roast some marshmallows. The glow of this unique opportunity to spend an evening in the country with your family will remain with you for a lifetime! Local schools help carve the pumpkins for this great event. Email them if your school would like to join the fun and have a carving day.
Date/Hours:
Friday, October 29, 2010 – Saturday, October 30, 2010 (6:00 PM-9:00 PM)
Admission Fee: $10/pp, Free/under 2
Children Welcome
Pets Welcome
Telephone: Phone: (540) 554-2073
Email: farmer@greatcountryfarms.com
Website: www.greatcountryfarms.com
The Great Jack O’Lantern Blaze
Van Cortlandt Manor
Croton-on-Hudson, New York
October/November 2010
2-3, 8-11, 15-17, 21-24, 28-31, Nov. 5-7
DON’T MISS the Hudson Valley’s biggest, most exciting, most electrifying Halloween event, featuring more than 4,000 individually hand-carved, illuminated jack o’ lanterns! Meander through an 18th-century riverside landscape and discover a breathtaking display: slithering snakes, shrunken heads, a giant spider web, an undersea aquarium, super-sized dinosaurs, pirates, ghosts, plus a mammoth exhibition of mummies and a pyramid…straight out of ancient Egypt and all made of jack o’ lanterns!
For more information: http://www.hudsonvalley.org/content/view/195/198/
20th Anniversary of the Keene Pumpkin Festival®
October 16, 2010 – in Downtown Keene, New Hampshire
The sun starts to set and hundreds of volunteers rush to light thousands and thousands of carved pumpkins as visitors from around the world watch the dark become illuminated by nearly 30,000 votive candles then the wait for the final count to be announced and fireworks to start. This and much more awaits you at this yearly festival.
On the Friday before the there is a special Community Night held from 5 to 10 p.m. The evening includes live music at Central Square, DJ music, pumpkin drop-off stations at both Railroad Square and Central Square, food, information tents from Cheshire Medical Center and a sneak peek of Saturday’s grand finale with two towers lit.
The Keene Pumpkin Festival® is held on a Saturday in mid-October from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. While you’re waiting to see what that many pumpkins lit at one time looks like, the entire family can spend the day downtown with special activities for the kids including a costume parade, a seed spitting and pie eating contests, live music on three stages, facepainting, craft booths, lots of food provided by area non-profits, and much more. The evening ends with a spectacular fireworks display.
Community Night
On Friday, October 15, 2010 there will be a special Community Night held from 5 to 10 p.m. The evening includes live and DJ music, pumpkin drop-off stations at both Railroad Square and Central Square, food, information tents from Cheshire Medical Center and a sneak peek of Saturday’s grand finale with two towers lit, one in RR Square and the other in Central Square. Please come join us and bring a carved pumpkin with 3″ votive candle!
For more information: http://www.pumpkinfestival.org/community.html
Ten Jack O’Lantern Festivals in the United States
Haunted houses are a dime a dozen. Not to mention, they’re too scary for pre-schoolers, if you own some. That’s where “Jack” comes in. Refreshingly light on fright, spellbinding displays of Jack O’Lanterns have sprung up all over the country, offering a more artistic, interactive, and engaging Halloween event the whole family can enjoy. Each year, they get bigger, with bragging rights going to the Keene Pumpkin Festival in New Hampshire, which now features over 22,000 carved creations.
Jack O’Lanterns weren’t even associated with Halloween until the mid 1800’s. The practice of carving lanterns from gourds and other vegetables had a long history in the United Kingdom before that. Now of course, it has elevated to craft, limited only by the carver’s imagination.
Here are ten of this year’s largest Jack O’Lantern festivals, each showcasing at least 1,000 or more glowing gourds.
Keene Pumpkin Festival
Keene, NH
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Tourists outnumber residents along Main Street for a day of entertainment, crafts, contests, costumes and pumpkin-carving. The World Record was broken here in ‘03 with 28,592 Jack O’Lanterns. (Boston held an even in 2006 and broke that record with 30,128.)
Jack O’Lantern Spectacular
Roger Williams Park Zoo, Providence, RI
October 7 – October 31, 2o10
The Zoo transforms its wetlands trail with the glow of 10,000 pumpkins. Over 30 professional pumpkin carvers spend six weeks creating the trail.
Portland Pumpkin Festival
L.L. Bean in Freeport, Maine
October 30, 2010
Join us on Saturday October 30, 2010 at L.L. Bean in Freeport to spend the day carving pumpkins, enjoying live music, viewing pumpkin sculptures, our Pumpkin Tower and even walk through a Pumpkin House. Nearly 5,000 Jack O’Lanterns fill the square, anchored by the giant Pumpkin Tower. The event raises funds for Camp Sunshine, a national retreat for children with life-threatening illnesses and their families.
The Great Jack O’Lantern Blaze
Van Cortlandt Manor, Croton-on-Hudson, NY
October 2–November 7, 2010
More than 4,000 glowing Jack O’Lanterns cover the grounds of a 17th-century historic site. Find them hanging from tree limbs, perched on rooftops, and staged as an undersea aquarium, a hillside spider web, a scarecrow avalanche, and a field of detailed Celtic knots.
The Great Pumpkin Challenge
Bennington, VT
October 23, 2010
Locals bring their own Jack O’Lanterns downtown, lining the streets nearly 2,000. The evening’s main event involves 150 people participating in “Thrill the World,” a world-wide simultaneous dance (to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”) attempting to break world records.
5th Annual Jack-O-Lantern Spectacular
Rees Memorial Carillon, Springfield, IL
October 29 – 30, 2010
Over 2,000 Jack-O-Lanterns surround the Carillon and the Washington Park Botanical Garden. Funds raised from this event go toward the preservation of the 67-bell tower, a community landmark.
Pumpkin Glow Night
Great Country Farms, Bluemont, VA
October 23 and 24
Over 1,500 Jack O’Lanterns lie in wait until the magical moment when the lights go out. Carving competitions award “Best in Glow,” “Scariest” and “Funniest.”
Great Pumpkin Fest
The EcoTarium, Worcester, MA
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Local youth groups carve nearly1,500 pumpkins, which are displayed throughout the grounds. The day includes hayrides and train rides, a planetarium show, games, carving demonstrations, and crafts.
7th Annual Ballard Park Pumpkin Tour
Newport, RI
Saturday, October 17
Local community groups pay for the privilege to carve and display more than 1,000 Jack O’Lanterns along the park’s loop trail. The proceeds support Newport’s only nature preserve.
Pony Express Pumpkinfest
Patee Park, St. Joseph, MO
October 9–11
This weekend festival, complete with crafts, food, a costume parade and petting zoo, has a headlining event; the lighting of the Great Pumpkin Mountain. Nearly 1,000 hand-carved pumpkins are stacked over twenty-five high, and come to life with a click of a switch.
2010 Jack-O-Lantern Spectacular – Roger Williams Park – Providence, RI
October 7 – 31, 2010
Open nightly, rain or shine, 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. (trail closes by 11 p.m.)
Experience the glow of thousands of pumpkins, set in a magical display of artistry during this night-time Spectacular and feast your eyes on hundreds of artfully carved jack-o-lanterns depicting people, places and scenes from popular culture to old-time favorites and everything in between – all with painstaking detail and amazing intricacy! Don’t miss this unique, family friendly evening event, commended by the U.S. Library of Congress, featured by The Early Show, CNN and the Associated Press and hailed by USA Today as “extraordinary.”
Directions:
Located just 50 minutes from Boston and 90 minutes from Hartford with well marked, easy access off Interstate 95. GPS users, enter address “1000 Elmwood Ave., Providence RI.” FREE PARKING
From:
95 S – take RI exit 17. Left at light, left at intersection of Park Ave and Elmwood Ave (4th light), and left into the Park (second light).
95 N – take RI exit 16 bear right at the spilt, right off exit. Take a left onto Park Ave (1st light), left into Park (second light).
10 S – take the Elmwood Ave Exit, off exit. Take a left onto Park Ave (1st light), left into Park (second light).
Once inside the entrance of Roger Williams Park, follow the signs for the Jack O’Lantern Spectacular to the Zoo.
For more information: http://www.rogerwilliamsparkzoo.org/jols/info.cfm