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. 🎃

Bayview Pumpkin Pavilion ~ 2022

Happy Halloween Everybody! I am so happy to have some photos to share with you from the Bayview Pumpkin Pavilion! Mom and I went to this event a little over a week ago and I was saving the pics for Halloween. You might remember that this event involves the display of many carved pumpkins, as well as some awesome sculptures. I have to start with what is maybe my favorite photo from that night.

Get ready for a whole troop of zombies. Check out the eyes on this one!

This one looks like kind of a dancer. Maybe I'm thinking of the Thriller video.

Quite the glittery, shimmering zombie here. That paint gives a nice slimy effect.

Eek! Those teeth. I wonder if the sculptor used actual false teeth on these.

A nice follow-up to these zombies is the creepy cemetery we can assume they just crawled out of.

You're going to see several photos from this area, because I couldn't get enough of the up-lit green on these tombstones and skeletons. My favorite Halloween decorations are usually up-lit and involving lots of shadows.

YOLO!

I really liked the texture on this one.

I recognize that Dollar Tree skull. :)

This ghoulish specter was behind one of the windows of a building in the park.

She would sink down slowly and then spring up really fast.

You might remember these two from a few years ago. They're... OK, I'm not sure really. My interpretation is that these creatures are part human, part pumpkin.

I think actual glass eyes were used on these. It was so freaky when the light glimmered off them. They really appeared to be making eye contact.

Does this guy remind you of that creepy cab driver in Ghostbusters? When I saw that movie as a kid, the freakiest part to me was the zombie cab driver. Or rotten skeleton ghost man, or whatever he was. This one was "driving" a parked truck.

This will give you an idea of the general scene. There were many jack-o-lanterns on display and above us were strings of party lights. All of this made for an old fashioned and fun atmosphere.

This is the event's logo in what I assume was black light paint.

There were wonderfully up-lit skeletons and bones in the trees. I didn't even catch them for some time. Mom looked up and noticed these guys. 

If any of you are big fans of The Lost Boys, maybe you too will be reminded of the end of the movie when you look at this.

Look at that sassy skeleton to the side!

What my eyes first saw this as was a scarab, but on closer view it was a skull flanked by jawbones. 

There was a band playing, although they were on break when I took this picture. As you can see, they had a Nightmare Before Christmas set-up going.

Now to the pumpkins! Don't they look great with those intense blue lights? I especially like this photo because of the adorable kid in the skeleton outfit. That expression on her face is so sweet.

This photo is serving as my computer wallpaper right now.

I LOVE this carving! It looks like the guts are dripping. How careful did the carver have to be to cut around everything but these very thin lines? One slip of the knife and those details would be gone! 

This pumpkin is serving as my phone's background.

I was impressed by this sun carving too. Not only thin lines but that layered cutting. You know, where someone kind of shaves off a layer of pumpkin so the light glows through. 

This guy might be my favorite. He's up there anyway. Sinister! I can almost hear its evil pumpkin laughter. 

I hadn't seen this inflatable before. There's a lot going on with this spooky tree.

Every year, there are some lit-up jellyfish near the entrance/exit. 

See the fiberoptics? 

I realized this year that the jellyfish are made from lampshades, which you can see pretty clearly in this picture.

This pumpkin creature was standing in a yard near the park. Isn't he something? I'm so impressed by this creation. 

This nicely designed skull and plant combo was in the same yard.

This is a view from another nearby house. I really liked what they had going on with that skull under the porch light. That's an idea to tuck away. 

Well, there you have it! I really had a good time looking around and documenting all this creepy glowing goodness. I hope you all have a very Happy Halloween, however you end up celebrating! 🎃