Bayview Pumpkin Pavilion 2024

Last weekend was perfect for the Bayview Pumpkin Pavilion because of the super mild weather. We'd had temps in the 70s last Friday. Nice and warm for this swamp monster....

Talk about attitude. This guy was creeping out of the water. He's referred to as "The Creature from the Humboldt Park Lagoon". Isn't the green lighting perfect?

The black light sign for the event:

Remember the zombies? I think this guy may have been new.

I like the reaper's wings. They're like boney frames. 

I took a ton of pictures of this guy. He was the guardian of the pumpkins. At least that's what I'm going to call him, because he was looming over them with his arms outstretched. 

I'll limit myself to just sharing a few pics of him. I'm sure you guys have seen these giant skeletons at night and noticed how their eyes change. I caught an especially sinister expression here!

So as you can see here, the pumpkins were lined up in rows. They went on and on. 

The fog machine was really rolling.

Here are some of my favorite carvings. I'm trying to think of some carving inspiration for the next few days when I'll be carving one to display where I live. We have a similar set-up in the downtown area but it's much smaller than this. I saw lots of different jack-o-lantern faces that might influence what I do. 

How about the eyes here? Someone did well not having them fall apart with just those centers left. He's kind of a Cheshire Cat. 

How impressive is this skull!? I'm always impressed when people carve in layers with a sort of translucent "skin" left. 

This pumpkin is turned horizontal. 

Love this one. The face looks like it is made of flames. 

This one may just be my favorite. So. Many. Cuts. Someone really had control of the knife. I'm getting carpal tunnel just looking at this. 

I like those lower teeth on the one on the right. Again, that's a lot of control. 

Mr. Oogie Boogie Man. 

Nosferatu - probably. 

This is probably my second favorite carving. So many cat carvings this year!

An owl:

Nice teeth.

Hello Kitty:

You may remember this art installation from last year. So here it is at a distance:

Skeletal pigeons lined the perimeter of this structure and the top of these ropes. They were painted with black light paint. 

Some of the houses around the park had some decorations up. There weren't as many as in years past, but the ones we saw were pretty impressive. Like this ghost on fire holding a human heart. As I type that, I'm thinking I need a bit of a backstory on this character. 

Skeleton reaper dude:

Beetlejuice Sandworm:

This front yard is awesome. Everything they do with the lighting and what I think is a homemade pumpkin creature. It's all so creative. See the red-eyed skull in the planter?

I bet his body is made from pipes.

Here's a good picture to end on, because he's waving goodbye. The bright orange lighting on these last two is so classic. 

Hope you guys enjoyed this year's photo show! I was pretty impressed with this year's pumpkin carvings. I'm actually more impressed now that I'm home looking these photos over. Some serious work went into some of those pumpkins. I wonder how long they took to carve. Maybe an hour? Some of you who do intricate carvings might be able to give me an estimate. 🎃