A welcome sign to the Louisville Jack ‘O Lantern Spectacular

The Louisville Jack O’ Lantern Spectacular – An Inside Look

Looking for a way to celebrate Halloween in Louisville with the family, but without giving the kiddos nightmares at the same time? How ’bout a couples’ night out in an immersive, or as some may say “magical,” walk through beautiful Iroquois Park as it’s lit by the orange luster of thousands of pumpkins? Well, look no further than the annual Louisville Jack ‘O Lantern Spectacular!

Decorated entrance to the Louisville Jack ‘O Lantern Spectacular

Every year, our beloved spooky season descends on Louisville with a variety of ferocious festivities. From the Louisville Zombie Walk and Louisville Halloween Parade to the 20 (or so) horrifying haunts in the metro area alone, there are plenty of ways to satisfy your Halloween hangryness without so much as leaving Jefferson County.

A welcome Pumpkin to Louisville Jack ‘O Lantern Spectacular

2019 was our first year visiting this annual event, so we had no idea what we were really getting ourselves into. We’d seen the event on Facebook in previous years, but knew of little else other than, “they put a whole bunch of really cool pumpkins out for everyone to look at.” This year, we decided it’s finally time to grab our online tickets and take the 1-hour trip to Louisville!

Some of the crowd at Louisville Jack ‘O Lantern Spectacular

After looking at their event page, we discovered the gates opened at 6:00p and the event started at 7:00p. Though, on this night, we wanted to make sure we arrived after dark, so we waited to show up until about 8:00p.

The event is a collaboration between the Louisville Parks Foundation and Passion for Pumpkins Inc. In addition, we discovered that P4P also does this event in Providence, Rhode Island and Minneapolis, MN!

Welcome to The Four Seasons at Louisville Jack ‘O Lantern Spectacular

From their website:

(https://www.jack-o-lanternlouisville.com/about)

OCTOBER 8 – NOVEMBER 3, 2019

The Jack-O-Lantern Spectacular began in Oxford, Massachusetts in 1988. The Louisville event, celebrating its 7th year in 2019, is held in Iroquois Park with 5,000 carved pumpkins lining a 1/3-mile walking trail, illuminated at night as an “art show”. The show runs daily from dusk to 11 p.m., during the week (Sunday-Thursday), and closes at midnight on Friday & Saturday.

Look at all those pumpkins at Louisville Jack ‘O Lantern Spectacular!

As we got close to Iroquois Park, we noticed that traffic was backing up well in advance of the park entrance. At the same time, we were passing “Additional Parking” signs that informed us of other places we could go if their native lots were full, or if we simply wanted to avoid the wait to get onto IP’s property. We decided to stick it out and, fortunately, we were able to get parked pretty quickly with the assistance of some fantastic flaggers.

The scariest part of the night was when we got our first look at the waiting line. It seemed to go on forever! Soon, we found a staff member and asked if this was the ticket line or the line to go through the event. Fortunately (we think), it was the latter. He also informed us that, if we did *not have our tickets yet, someone from our group could get out of line and walk on up to the ticket booth to get tickets, then come back and join us after doing so. Luckily, none of us had to deal with all of that extra walking.

After about 45 minutes of waiting in line, we eventually made it to the amphitheater part of the park. Our queue line wrapped all the way through it and past several vendors’ booths. Quite a variety of beers, snacks, fudge, flavored popcorn, gourmet food, photo ops with Jack ‘O Lantern backgrounds and more were available, all before the entrance of the trail.

Photo courtesy of The Popcorn Station

The waiting line does move quickly, and you’ll always be on a paved sidewalk of some kind; there’s not an actual “dirt” trail that you’ll have to worry about. However, you will be let into the walking trail of pumpkins with all of the other guests… essentially a “conga line.” This can make it hard at times to see all of the glorious pumpkins and take photos of them. Be sure to bring your patience with you! Too, you can walk the trail at your own pace and take as much time as you like checking out all of the wonderful designs and artistry. But, it is* recommended that you keep moving forward at all times as a courtesy to those around you.

Hello Spring at Louisville Jack ‘O Lantern Spectacular

By the end of the walk, we were very pleased with our experience! Since we’ve only been once, we aren’t sure how much the trail design changes from year to year, but it’ll likely be a few years before we return. The only reason for this is the massive crowd. If you’ve never been to the Louisville Jack ‘O Lantern Spectacular, then we highly suggest you grab your fellow Halloween-loving friends and family and get down there this season! “Spectacular” is definitely an accurate adjective here, and we wouldn’t wish missing out on it on anybody.

Welcome to Summer Lovin’ at Louisville Jack ‘O Lantern Spectacular

Spoiler alert! Here comes a lot more pictures!

Entrance to the waiting line when we arrived at Louisville Jack ‘O Lantern Spectacular
Some food and beverage options at Louisville Jack ‘O Lantern Spectacular
By far, this was our favorite pumpkin at Louisville Jack ‘O Lantern Spectacular!
Disney pumpkin at Louisville Jack ‘O Lantern Spectacular
Boxer puppy at Louisville Jack ‘O Lantern Spectacular
Selfie time for Team Zombillies at Louisville Jack ‘O Lantern Spectacular
Some giant pumpkins at Louisville Jack ‘O Lantern Spectacular
Giant, real pumpkins at Louisville Jack ‘O Lantern Spectacular
They even had a ferris wheel!
It was a full moon!
Welcome to Autumn Pumpkin at Louisville Jack ‘O Lantern Spectacular
Oktoberfest Pumpkin at Louisville Jack ‘O Lantern Spectacular
The Scarecrow pumpkin at Louisville Jack ‘O Lantern Spectacular
IT pumpkin with Pennywise at Louisville Jack ‘O Lantern Spectacular
Happy Halloween Jack-O-Lantern at Louisville Jack ‘O Lantern Spectacular
Frankenstein’s Monster pumpkin at Louisville Jack ‘O Lantern Spectacular
Edward Scissorhands pumpkin at Louisville Jack ‘O Lantern Spectacular
Veterans Day Pumpkin at Louisville Jack ‘O Lantern Spectacular
Thanksgiving Church at Louisville Jack ‘O Lantern Spectacular
Merry Christmas Pumpkin at Louisville Jack ‘O Lantern Spectacular
Christmas Castle at Louisville Jack ‘O Lantern Spectacular
Happy New Year Pumpkin at Louisville Jack ‘O Lantern Spectacular
Sponsoring Partners at Louisville Jack ‘O Lantern Spectacular
Season’s End at Louisville Jack ‘O Lantern Spectacular!

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