THE MOST BEAUTIFUL PUMPKIN FESTIVALS TO VISIT NOW
While it’s not that hard to find cool jack o’lanterns this time of year, being who we are, we were on a mission to find the most BEAUTIFUL ones happening right now. That was trickier! But… we scored!
We found two spectacular pumpkin festivals that feature incredible beautiful and clever carvings. The Great Jack O’Lantern Blaze, in New York’s Hudson Valley, and The Rise of the Jack O’Lantern Festival, in Long Island, New York and California.
Carved by artisans the pumpkins you’ll see at these festivals are fashioned into amazing displays. They might just inspire you to up your homespun Halloween decorating game.
Beyond all of the orange ogling, you’ll feast on harvest delights, enjoy special performance art,
Check them out below… and, if you can, go see them in person!
Walk through a covered bridge, encrusted with hundreds of carved pumpkins into a historic 18th century landscape, where Washington Irving’s Headless Horseman once rode in the Legend of Sleepy Hollow at The Great Jack O’Lantern Blaze, one of the coolest pumpkin festivals on the planet.
Immerse yourself in the orange glow as you wander through an 18th century landscape adorned in a breathtaking display of more than 7,000 illuminated jack o’ lanterns at The Great Blaze Festival, in Croton-On-Hudson, New York.
The pumpkins are designed and hand-carved on site by a team of of more than 1,000 artisans each year.
Watch a windmill go round and round (with pumpkins all around). Check out the brand new medieval castle guarded by a flock of jack o’lantern owls. Find your pumpkin zodiac sign.
Stroll across the Pumpkin Zee Bridge, an orange replica of the local Tappan Zee Bridge which spans the Hudson River. Watch the Pumpkin Carousel twirl. Marvel at the giant pumpkin Sea Serpent and the color-changing star show in the Pumpkin Planetarium.
Freedom turns orange with the awesome jack o’lantern Statue of Liberty.
Feast on pumpkin cake as you watch tumbling acrobatics and circus characters. Check out the springy gourd-filled Jack-in-the-Boxes, giant insects, lizards, and dinosaurs, all carved from the glorious orange orbs.
The Great Blaze is an annual festival that lasts as long as the pumpkins do, about 28 days, before they rot away in a Halloweeny kind of way.
Your beautiful black and orange evening will be enhanced by elaborate synchronized sound effects and lighting. Check out the all-original soundtrack by recording artist Richard Christy.
The Great Blaze Festival is on now through November 24, 2018.
All proceeds from Blaze events support the programs of Historic Hudson Valley, a non-profit education organization.
The RISE of the Jack-o'-Lanterns, in Westbury, New York and in Los Angeles, California, are meccas for some of the coolest, most beautiful carved pumpkins you will ever see. And not just a few either. You will be totally blown away by more than 5,000 exquisitely carved pumpkins at each location.
It’s a surreal experience and you stroll along a quarter-mile long trail, past dinosaurs, jellyfish, monuments, schools of fish, and other wonders, all made out of ordinary orange pumpkins.
The pumpkins, which are hollowed out, are lit from within, to make this spectacle particularly fabulous to behold at night.
Some of these sculptures take over 20 hours to complete.
This year, you will see an orange pumpkin re-creation of the New York City Skyline, favorite celebrities and even more.
The main event usually sells out, so hurry to get your tickets, but many of the artists continue to carve pumpkins for several weeks, replacing the original creations as they rot, so you can still see them before winter sets in.
Read more about Opulent Orange all this week on BeautifulNow. And check out more beautiful things happening now in BN Wellness, Impact, Nature/Science, Food, Arts/Design, and Travel, Daily Fix posts.
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