Pumpkinferno: Halloween family fun

You know your neighbour down the street who always decorates his house for Halloween with garlands of orange lights, lots of cobwebs and a truckload of jack o’ lanterns?

Pumpkinferno is like that house … multiplied by a thousand.

Officially, it takes 40 minutes to tour, but it’s easy to spend a couple of hours admiring the huge displays of intricately carved synthetic pumpkins set up along lighted pathways at Upper Canada Village in Morrisburg. Each one seems to top the last: highlights include glowing orange horses peeking their heads out of stalls in a barn, a tree full of mock bats, an eerily lit church, a gallery of elaborate representations of astrological signs, swans in a pond, giant chess pieces, the animals of Noah’s Ark, vintage Ford cars, and a huge sound-and-light show featuring a Tim Burton soundtrack and hundreds of pumpkins flashing in time to the music.

“I don’t want to sound too bold or too cocky, but I think this is the best one yet,” said Geoff Waycik, manager of Upper Canada Village. I haven’t seen the previous ones, but I suspect he might be right.

This is the third year for the increasingly popular fall event, which drew 72,000 visitors in its first two years; organizers are hoping to attract 40,000 this year. It’s also an increasingly vital part of the local economy, with an estimated economic impact of $12 million since its inception. This year, over 100 people—mostly high school and university students—started carving the pumpkins in May with a selection of power tools and specialized knives.

Liam Mills demonstrates how student artists create the thousands of pumpkins at Pumpkinferno. Photo by Laura Byrne Paquet.

Upper Canada Village created this event out of whole cloth. No one else was doing anything similar. They tracked down a supplier of high-quality artificial pumpkins in Mexico, and taught themselves how to carve them by trial and error. Now they’ve started franchising the concept; the first satellite Pumpkinferno opened its doors in Sudbury this year.

Pumpkinferno at Upper Canada Village is suitable for all ages and the paths are wheelchair accessible, but on rainy nights they can be wet and muddy. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to bring a small flashlight to illuminate your way (turn it off at the displays themselves to avoid distracting other visitors).

I saw Pumpkinferno as a guest of Upper Canada Village, which neither reviewed nor approved this post.

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If you go

Distance from Ottawa: 88km

Dates: Open select evenings until November 1. Saturdays are generally the busiest night.

Hours: 7pm until 10pm, except for the last evening, when the doors open at 6:30pm.

Price: $13 for adults, $10 for children and seniors, free for children under 5. You can also get a $23 combo pass to Pumpkinferno and Fort Fright.

Meals: Hot meals, snacks and drinks are available onsite.

More information: Upper Canada Village