Keep your eyes open for special occasions when you visit, too.īoo!: Check out these 'spooktacular' Halloween events in Louisville 'Come Sunday through Thursday when the prices are cheaper and you won't have to wait in quite such a long line,' she added. Here's a tip for locals: If you don't want to stand in line forever with a bunch of out-of-town visitors, skip the weekend. 'This is our biggest fundraiser of the year, by far,' said Pardue. This year in addition to proceeds from the ticket sales, the foundation will benefit from the sale of items like t-shirts, baseball hats and glow sticks sold at the entrance to the event, Pardue said. The Louisville Parks Foundation receives the proceeds from the Louisville Jack-O-Lantern Spectacular, which it uses to improve city parks. The paycheck 'helps out enormously.' Artists are paid about $100 for a finished jack-o'-lantern, which typically takes several hours to complete. 'I have three kids so I really look forward to this work every year,' he said. Thompson, who was finishing up his Burt Reynolds pumpkin in early October, was hired by Jack-O-Lantern Spectacular four years ago. We let people come in and push the ink around on the pumpkin and see if they like it and can adapt to working on a pumpkin and from there, it kind of weeds itself out.' 'We look for people who have a background in art and an eye for detail,' Sciannameo said. 'It's kind of a like a baseball team. Once the hundreds of pumpkins start to arrive at the Iroquois warehouse in September, so do dozens of local artists. 'We start with a theme - this year it's 'Night in the Library' - then we map out where the pumpkins are going to go, how the trail will be orchestrated, what music is going to play in each part of the trail and what props we are going to build,' said Sciannameo. 'It's all designed to transport you into that magical realm, which this year includes huge oversized books with the titles to each section you are entering written onto the cover.' October event: Your ultimate guide to the St. 9.īesides Kentucky, they also produce shows in Rhode Island and Minnesota. Each is handpicked and hired by Paul Codieux and Travis Reckner, owners of the event company Passion for Pumpkins, and each is trained by Sciannameo.įriends since they were in grade school in Oxford, Massachusetts, Codieux, Reckner and Sciannameo start work on the pumpkin project five months in advance of opening night, which this year is set for Oct. To pull off a display of this magnitude, the Jack-O-Lantern Spectacular requires the talent of dozens of local painters, printmakers, tattoo artists, sculptors and accomplished hobbyists. 'It's why people come to Louisville from all over the country during the Halloween season.' It's truly indescribable,' said Brooke Pardue, Louisville Parks Foundation president. If you haven't seen it, 'you have to come out and walk through this experience.

Louisville jack o lantern spectacular