Rise of the Jack O’ Lanterns at the LA Convention Center

10/25/2016 | Grace Lennon |

The traditional carving of pumpkins for Halloween has been taken to the next level at this amazing show! RISE of the Jack O’ Lanterns, an exhibit that features 5,000 hand-carved, illuminated jack-o’-lanterns that travel from city to city, ran from Oct.13th through Oct.16th at the Los Angeles Convention Center. Visitors walked through the pumpkin patch arrangement, which featured 100-pound pumpkins carved into characters and pop culture references in life-sized, multi-pumpkin sculptures.

Rise of the Jack O’ Lanterns Carved Pumpkin

Car Jack-O’-Lantern Sculptures

Unlike other Halloween events in Los Angeles, this one is not particularly scary, yet is both seasonally appropriate and quite beautiful! Guests walk down a pathway and view the jack-o’-lanterns while an ambient Halloween soundtrack plays. There are no roving monsters waiting to pop out and startle you, just thousands of intricately-designed pumpkins, many piled into impressive sculptures.

Day of the Dead Jack-O’-Lantern Sculpture

Star Wars Jack-O’-Lantern Sculptures

Some of the highlights of the show were a 50-foot-long dragon, numerous pop culture references - from the likes of Star Wars and Marvel/ DC Comics characters - as well as an assortment of animals and dinosaurs. In addition to these elaborate sculptures, the event also featured thousands of smaller fresh pumpkins, all of which are re-carved throughout the event’s five-city run.

Dragon Jack-O’-Lantern Sculpture

Iron Man Jack-O’-Lantern Sculpture

In addition to viewing the completed carvings, visitors were able to watch artists carve an array of displays during the show. There were four live-carving stations at the event, showing attendees how to carve their own jack-o’-lanterns!

Live Jack-O’-Lantern Carving

RISE of the Jack O’Lanterns will be featured next at the Fairplex in Pomona October 27th-30th. For more information and to buy tickets for the Pomona show, visit http://www.therise.org/.