NORTHAMPTON — Look Park is once again the place to be for families this October with the return of the beloved Haunted Train, the new Allura Pumpkin Art Spectacular, and its annual fall festival culminating the month of fall festivities.
The Haunted Train rides will take place over 10 nights in October starting Thursday, Oct. 15. The train will remain open the rest of the month on Oct. 16-18, 22-25, and 29-30 from 5-9 p.m. each night, weather dependent.
And for the fourth straight year, Look Park’s Fall Festival at Haunted Harvest take places on Saturday, Oct. 24 from noon to 9 p.m., where the public is once again invited to the park for food and beverages, a craft and vendor fair, live music and activities for people of all ages.
More specifically throughout the afternoon on festival day, the Parks & Recreation Department will once again host its “KidzLand” games and activities for $10 per child (children 2 and under are free), and musical performances will include the Mr. Liam Music Show, Tom & Corrie, The Grumpytime Club Band and The Avenue. The Puttin’ Pumpkins mini-golf course will also be returning from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and is a fundraiser event for the Northampton Parents Center.
Entry to Look Park for these upcoming events is $10 for vehicle entry and activities inside will be free besides food, drink and the KidzLand portion of events hosted by Parks & Recreation.
“We like to have fun, we like to entertain families, but also people or single adults or people who don’t have kids,” said Look Park Operations Director Mark Penney. “We wanted to make this more inclusive for everybody to have a good time so there’s different elements for the train, but it’s also why we do the live music, the adult beverage bar, and now we’ve got Allura.”
Supplementing the festival activities will of course be the Haunted Train but also a new event featured to the park this fall in the Allura Pumpkin Art Spectacular. The new and unique event will feature a journey of light, art and imagination for families to walk around the park and experience many hand-carved, exquisite pumpkin sculptures designs over 12 nights in October.
Founded by artist Peter Savigny, the Allura Pumpkin Art Spectacular hopes to become a mainstay as an art experience in the area for years to come. Savigny spent his career as an art director in television creating graphics for ABC, NBC and other networks and channels for 30 years.
Savigny’s experience crafting pumpkin sculptures and pieces started later in his artistic career when asked by his son to create a pumkin sculpture for a play he was in. In taking on the request, he created a pumpkin-carved rendition of the Headless Horseman from “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and through that work eventually came to the opportunity to do more pumpkin carving for shows much like what he is creating now with Allura.
“The light bulb went off. I saw the shows and saw kids going ‘cool, look at that, look at this, that’s amazing how do you do that,’ and I said wow I’m getting reactions out of people. I don’t see this when I’m in my studio. So, I said I really should do my own show,” Savigny said.
Savigny explained he does not use real pumpkins and instead uses a foam molding material made from real pumpkins as it allows the pieces to live on and not fall apart from decay soon after being formed.
“I use them and nest them together into big boards and constructions which a real pumpkin wouldn’t hold up to. You could do a real pumpkin as a single pumpkin, or a couple side by side but within a week or so they’re rotted out,” Savigny explained.
Savigny explained that out of art school as a young artist his work focused on creating dioramas and see’s this new endeavor with Allura as a closed loop on his artistic journey as the public is invited to walk through these “large dioramas” through the art show. He added he does not see it as a Halloween show and there are not scary or gory elements to his work, just unique pumpkin sculptures of different animals and characters that people of all ages can enjoy as they walk through a path of his creations.
“I’d like to start a new tradition,” he said. “This is really about the art. It’s about allowing people to spend an affordable amount of money, spend an evening out and be transported. It feels a little mysterious, a little mystical. I’d like to think of it as an extension of my art form, it’s a retirement passion project of mine to do something that binds me with the community a little bit.”
The Allura Pumpkin Art Spectacular leads the way for events at Look Park this fall, beginning Oct. 9-11, and taking place the rest of the month on Oct. 15-18, 22-25 and 29-31, with its closing night on Nov. 1. Tickets are $17 plus a small fee for general admission, $14 for youth and senior admission, and free to children 3 years and younger, and are available at lookallura.com.
“We see it trending to younger kids and families as opposed to teenagers looking for that fright factor. There’re other venues in the valley that do that and do it very well, so that’s not what we’re going for. We’re just going for the family experience, the fun,” said Penney on the show and the park’s other events this month. “It was a perfect marriage we think of his target audience and ours and this is a new experience for this area. You have to see it to believe it to really appreciate how spectacular and cool it is, so we’re hoping this is something that can grow and year over year he can increase his pieces and we think it will be well received.”
For more information on all of these upcoming events, visit lookpark.org/events or follow the Look Park Facebook page.
Penney added the park’s events have become such favorites of the community over the years thanks to its generational reach and hopes families and people of all ages once again make it out for the good and not-too-spooky times.
“Look Park means so much to everybody here,” Penney said. “A lot of kids in the area were practically raised here with going to playgrounds and enjoying the attractions, and so many parents did the same and grandparents did the same back in the 50s and 60s when they were coming to the pool, working at the pancake house, and coming to Santa’s Trains the last 30 years so it really has a lot of nostalgia with people.”
