A life-size skeleton puppet surrounded by several children wearing puffy jackets during the night

Pumpkin Parade Weekend

October 22 & 23, 2022

11 a.m.–4 p.m. | At the Garden

Some of the country’s largest gourds are on hand for a pumpkin party unlike any other! Get crafty with wands and shakers ahead of our Pumpkin Parade, and dress up in your best Halloween outfit as you walk down Garden Way with larger-than-life skeletons and acrobats. Then explore enormous pumpkins from the Great Pumpkin Commonwealth—some weighing in at over a ton—along with live pumpkin carving from artist Adam Bierton, winner of Food Network’s Halloween Wars.

Parade Prep with Materials for the Arts

11 a.m.–2 p.m.
Pathway Along Everett Children’s Adventure Garden Entrance

Join Materials for the Arts to craft colorful streamer wands and recycled shakers. You’ll be sure to be heard and seen while you walk in the Garden’s Pumpkin Parade.

Materials for the Arts is dedicated to giving unwanted items the opportunity to become something new through creative reuse through education and unlimited imagination.

Pumpkin Parade

2 p.m.
Meet at Reflecting Pool

Join in our Pumpkin Parade and wear your best Halloween costume! Leading you in celebration along Perennial Garden Way are giant puppets, a brass band, and acrobats. The parade will conclude in front of the iconic Enid A. Haupt Conservatory.

Puppets on Parade
Larger-than-life skeletons and pumpkins, oh my! Puppets commissioned by Bronx-based puppeteer Lucrecia Novoa, a visual artist, educator, puppeteer, and director of “Mascara Viva.”

Brass by the Slice
Brass by the Slice is a high energy brass band based in New York City, serving up all of your favorite pop hits. BBTS has been popping up around Manhattan and Brooklyn since May 2021, and have performed at Public Display of Affection Pizza, the Royal Palms Shuffleboard Club, Big Alice Brewery for their monthly Jambalaya, as well as Madison Square Park and McCarren Park.

Spooky Stilt Walkers
The Alice Farley Dance Theater Company creates Theater of Gesture and Transformation: Creating intimate theatrical productions, dance extended through sculptural costuming, illusion, puppetry, stilts and circus skills.

Acrobats on Parade
Almanac Dance Circus Theatre is an award-winning, Philadelphia-based, contemporary circus company dedicated to original works of genre-defying art.

two young children in princess costumes marching in a parade with instruments

Pumpkin Carving with Adam Bierton

11 a.m.–3 p.m.
Visitor Center

Watch as amazing pumpkin faces and designs emerge from pumpkins of all shapes and sizes.

Adam Bierton is a professional sculptor and pumpkin carver based in New York. Most famously known for his 3D style pumpkin carvings and his season five win of the popular Food Network series Halloween Wars in 2015. Bierton has competed in several other network series and has successfully carved some of the largest pumpkins from all over the country. To learn more, visit his website here.

Giant Pumpkins on Display

10 a.m.–6 p.m.
Enid A. Haupt Conservatory

They’re gigantic, they’re orange, and they’re finally here—this year’s enormous gourds have arrived at the Garden.

This year’s crop of jolly giants includes the New York State champion for weight, clocking in at a whopping 2,554lbs. The champion was grown by Scott Andrusz, and was only narrowly beat out as the North American champion by a record breaking pumpkin from Minnesota (2,560lbs). Accompanying the star from New York is a giant from Rhode Island grown by Steve Sperry weighing 2,136.5lbs, and a 2,424lb grown in Iowa by Pete Caspers. Come visit these extraordinary pumpkins, on display now through October 30 – and see one transformed by expert pumpkin carver Adam Bierton on October 29 & 30.

a giant pumpkin sitting on a wooden platform

Meet the Growers: Q&A and Seed Harvesting

Saturday, 3 p.m.; Sunday, 1 p.m.
Enid A. Haupt Conservatory

Meet the growers of some of the largest pumpkins in the country, which at the peak of growth can put on up to 50 lbs. of weight a day. Hear how they do it and learn more about these monstrous gourds.

two adult men picking out pumpkin seeds from a large green and orange pumpkin in the Reflecting Pool