Last Thursday, my family and I got to head down to Falcon Heights and visit the MN State Fairgrounds for a new feature called Pumpkin Nights. This exhibit opened on October 14 and goes through October 31.
Now I was a bit curious. Carving all of these pumpkins, how in the world do they last until the 31st? Well, I had to lightly tap on one and realized the pumpkins are made of polyurethane, I believe. Then they can be re-used year after year and parts of the exhibit can then be changed out gradually.
One of the staff members told us it took 12 of them at 1,000 hours each to carve the pumpkins used for Pumpkin Nights. This project was tackled over a three-month timeframe. Wow!
Pumpkin Nights comes with a one mile long illuminated walking path lined with 3,000 hand-carved pumpkins in 12 themed larger-than-life worlds. There are aliens, pirates, mermaids, giant spiders, icons from Minnesota, skulls from Dias de los Muertos, and much more!
This exhibit is a pleasure for the eyes. I got to practice some nighttime photography, which I don’t often get the chance to and that was fun. There is of course, some walking involved, but I think this event would be fun for all ages and just prepare to dress for the weather with most of it outdoors.
There are port-a-potties and food vendors available on the event grounds.
The hours to visit Pumpkin Nights are:
- Sundays to Thursdays: 6:30pm – 10:30pm
- Fridays & Saturdays: 6:30pm – Midnight
Parking is free at the West Como Lot. There were security officers out and about helping us cross the street to and from the lot to the entrance, which was great.
To purchase tickets and learn more about Pumpkin Nights, please visit http://www.pumpkinnights.com/#pumpkinnights.
Disclosure: I was invited to a press night at Pumpkin Nights to perform this review. No other compensation was received for this post.
My review of Pumkin Nights at the fair grounds.
I give it a B-
While many of the displays were fun and pretty and well done…the ground level made getting the full effect difficult as well as just getting a good look through the crowds.
More needed to be mounted up.
The different ‘lands’, I think that is the term they used, were poorly identified to understand or appreciate the full effect of what you were seeing.
The family gathering space with the toss games and the movie were a great idea but all the brightly lit concession robbed some of the displays of the full effect.
Worth 20 bucks? They do give you a wrist band for another free visit…I will give a reserved yes. It is the first year…it will need to get bettter.
Thank you for your feedback. With going to the press night, there were no crowds to deal with so all displays were easy for me and my family to see. A family gathering space was not set up when we went through. There was one vendor with a few Pumpkin Nights promo items and the pumpkins to pay for being carved. That’s it. I could see spots for food vendors, but no toss games and movie for press night.