Pumpkins Aglow offers unique, hand-carved pumpkins to celebrate Halloween. Credit: Nicole Giannetta | Lantern Reporter
Greeted by vibrant colors, the aroma of local delicacies and the distant sound of music, Franklin Park Conservatory is bound to harvest your attention.
Pumpkins Aglow, the conservatory’s third-annual Halloween festival, offers an entrancing scene with hand-carved pumpkins, complemented by local performers, over five specialty food trucks and seasonal crafts. The pumpkins — carved into eerie faces, frightening animals and other Halloween emblems — cover the all-access outdoor gardens.
Bonnie DeRubertis, associate director of exhibitions at Franklin Park Conservatory, said “fun, cool displays” and pumpkin-themed games are showcased at the festival, adding to the thousands of pumpkins making up its atmosphere.
“There’s shy of 3,000 pumpkins out on display and shy of a thousand that are carved, and so it’s carved jack-o’-lanterns throughout,” DeRubertis said. ”That’s definitely kind of striving for a real family-friendly festival kind of feel. There’s entertainment every night, there’s a lot of family-fun activities every night, such as fortune telling and face painting.”
DeRubertis said the various attractions throughout the gardens include a pumpkin house, sand and spin art, a spooky forest and a haunting graveyard display. Each attraction is brought to life with Halloween decorations and atmospheric lighting, which are further embellished at night, she said.
DeRubertis said guests are still allowed to explore the conservatory building if they please, including its plant collection, gallery space, gift shop and more.
With large displays come challenges, DeRubertis said. These include new pumpkins needing to be carved and replaced each week to maintain the integrity of the exhibition. She said it took the team great effort to successfully execute the showcase.
“We really as a whole organization, together, make this happen,” DeRubertis said.
Along with alternating pumpkins, the live entertainment and food vendors rotate each week, according to the conservatory’s website.
Amongst the food truck vendors is Gregg Norris, owner of Charlie’s Kettle Corn, a local business that has attended Pumpkins Aglow each year. Charlie’s Kettle Corn is the only vendor returning each week for the event.
“I just was really taken back by the number of people who came to [Pumpkins Aglow] and how well-accepted we were,” Norris said. “I’ve had lines a mile long, and that’s very little embellishment.”
Norris said he is grateful for the vast opportunities Pumpkins Aglow has created for him.
“It certainly exposed us to a lot more people that we have not been exposed to in the past and has brought us some additional business outside of the Pumpkins Aglow and the park venue itself, through meeting other business owners and coordinating some stuff with them and reaching different agreements with other businesses that are in the Columbus area that we don’t normally get exposed to,” Norris said.
The event runs Wednesday through Sunday 5-9 p.m., with the last event Oct. 30. Tickets cost $25 for adults, and it is highly encouraged to purchase tickets before attending, according to the website.
