travel to louisville ky for the amazing jack o'lantern spectacular

Louisville, Kentucky is FULL of fun things to do like the Louisville Slugger Museum, Louisville Mega Cavern, and the most famous – Churchill Downs, home of the Kentucky Derby! In the month of October, you can also visit the SUPER COOL Jack O’Lantern Spectacular (you can visit their website HERE)! This event originated in Oxford, Massachusetts in 1988, and has been held annually in Louisville’s Iroquois Park since 2013. All of the money raised benefits Louisville public parks. People come from everywhere to see MORE THAN 5,000 carved pumpkins so be sure to get tickets early, as they do sell out! You are 1000% going to want to add this to your fall must-do list!!! My team member, Mel, was in Louisville for a meeting on the opening day for the 2024 season and decided to snag some tickets and check it out!

The first thing you need to know about this event is that it is SO WELL ORGANIZED! There are countless volunteers parking cars, instructing you where to go, and keeping everything running smoothly. This is a VERY well-attended event and all the logistics were literally perfect and everyone was SUPER helpful!

We purchased our tickets online, so when we arrived, we were able to go right to the line. We were the first group in for the night. Iroquois Park has a HUGE ampitheater and that’s where the lines are organized. We were able to enter at 6:30, but since it was still light outside, we had to wait a while for it to get dark enough to enter the trail for the jack o’lanterns! Of course, I had to get a pic with the big ole pumpkin man while we were waiting!

We had to wait about an hour before we were allowed to go to the beginning of the trail. If you purchase tickets for later times, you may not have to wait quite that long. They had a really cool tunnel of lights just before you enter the trail and “This is Halloween” from Nightmare before Christmas is playing on a loop to get you ready for the event!

After about an hour wait, it was finally time to enter the trail! This super-neat jack o’lantern display was over the entrance and a really good indicator of what you are getting ready to see on display!

There was still just a little bit of light outside when we entered, but by the time we’d finished, it was totally dark. The darker it is, the cooler everything looks, so I would definitely recommend choosing one of the later ticket times to get the optimum viewing experience!

Y’all, it is SO hard to capture this awesomeness with photos. It is absolutely something you need to plan to visit if at all possible! They have truly made it an experience with not only the jack o’lanterns, but also lighting, music, and other artwork…it’s unreal!!!

There are over 5,000 jack o’lanterns featured on this year’s trail. A fun fact is that one of the two farms from which they were sourced is Darnell Pumpkins, which is located right here in Graves County, Kentucky and is owned by Brandon’s cousin! You may remember when Brooke visited there last year to show how to arrange pumpkins on your front steps. You can also visit the Darnell Pumpkins Facebook page HERE.

I loved the wide variety of designs, from the traditional jack o’lantern to the ones that are more elaborate. They are literally mini works of art!

I am pretty sure nearly everyone I know loves Hocus Pocus, especially at Halloween! Can you even believe the detail on this? Every one of these was carved out by a local artist in Louisville. You will want to visit the Jack O’Lantern Spectacular Facebook page to see some super-cool behind-the-scenes reels of the artists at work!!!

Beetlejuice is also another fan favorite! There are different sections along the walking trail and the pumpkins are grouped according to their subject – movies, music, Disney, etc. There is usually music playing in that section that corresponds with the theme!

All of the uplighting on the trees really adds to the experience. The weather was perfect and made for such a nice walk! It’s about 1/3 mile to the opening of the trail, and then the trail itself is another 1/3 mile. You can walk at your own pace!

LOVED the team USA Olympic pumpkin, complete with an Eiffel Tower replica and the Olympic rings in the background! It’s amazing to think about all the work that goes into this event!!!

There’s even jack o’lanterns up in the trees!!

I seriously could have taken like 1,000 pics and don’t know if I could ever be able to fully show how amazing of an experience this is. If you are even close to driving distance to Louisville, Kentucky, you will definitely want to make the trip. It’s VERY kid friendly AND fun for the grown-ups too!! At the end of the trail, I grabbed a cute ornament in the gift shop and we enjoyed a yummy oatmeal pie and cold apple cider from the food truck! It was the best night!!! Let us know if you plan to add this to your fall fun lineup!