Must Do Pumpkin Festivals
John Reckner didn’t grow up dreaming to one day become “lord of the gourd,” but it’s an earned title he doesn’t take lightly. Some three decades ago, Reckner, at the time living in Vermont, laid his eyes on a copy of Yankee Magazine. On the cover of the New England-centric publication was a photo of a few dozen pumpkins, all brilliantly aflame for a Green Mountains fall harvest spectacular.
From just the image alone, Reckner felt a calling to go, and it was an event just as internally luminous for him as those gleaming pumpkins. “After I saw them, I was taking my dog for a walk,” Reckner says. “I thought about those pumpkins. I thought about more detailed, intricate images on them and putting them in an attractive landscape setting. And, that was the origin of it.”
“It” is the more aptly described lifelong pursuit Reckner has been on to carve the world’s pumpkins in stunning detail for shows across the United States thanks to Passion For Pumpkins, his multimedia production company that’s been transforming landscapes with illuminated designs for 25 years.
“Thirty-four years later, I never thought I’d be doing this,” he says. Now, one of his most widely-known shows is the Jack-O-Lantern Spectacular, an event held annually at the Roger Williams Park Zoo in Providence, Rhode Island, which in 2021 attracted a record 170,000 visitors.
It’s a job Reckner doesn’t take lightly, plotting out themes years in advance, creating just the right music playlist, recruiting artists (Reckner has a preference for tattoo artists thanks to their unique skill set), and ensuring he has enough supply on hand for the thousands of pumpkins needed to sustain the event for an entire month. But it’s all in a day’s work for Reckner, because he believes in the deeper power of a seemingly simple fall festival. He believes in its power to bring people just a little joy in an otherwise chaotic world. “We just try to do our best,” he says.
Looking for festivals both near and afar? Check out these five pumpkin festivals around the world that will truly light up your night.