The Rise of The Jack O’Lanterns

We bought tickets online. This was the biggest waste of money I ever spent. If you envision strolling along a tree path with low ambient lighting so you can see real carved pumpkins, I suggest you check the venue site.
This is a traveling seasonal event. Most, or at least at Santa Anita Race Track in Arcadia California, of the large carvings are NOT real pumpkins. They are rubber mounted half pumpkins on plywood. The vast majority of pumpkins on the ground look like my 6 year old carved. That in itself would have been ok. However, many of them weren’t even lit. It smelled like rotting garbage and manure. (Horse Race Track) This particular venue was staged in the parking lot with HUGE flood lights in the event area leading to the walk through area. Also the man-​made path had lighting that was so bright that it detracted from seeing the pumpkins.
If you want to see a pumpkin every 10– 20 or so feet carved with Hilary Clinton, Donald Trump or Taylor Swift… you’re in the right place. If you’re thinking Jack O’Lanterns with jagged teeth or witches and trees, think again. There were huge bare areas with no pumpkins at all.
Also not to be rude but the portrait pumpkins looked nothing like the real people. If an name wasn’t on it, I would have had no clue.
There are signs ALL over the place that say NO dogs, flash, selfie sticks, smoking… etcetera. There were SO many dogs and flash photography going on. The smoking was also an issue.
Over all it was disorganized.
The actual walk through was maybe (I’m being generous) the length of a high school football field. So, if you’re into spending $ 28 to walk through a grouping of cheesy carved pumpkins (many made of rubber) in about 10 minutes…