Only three nights remain of the Roger Williams Park Zoo's fourth annual Jack O' Lantern Spectacular, which features over 150,000 pounds of carved, illuminated pumpkins and was hailed by the Library of Congress as a "local legacy."
The Spectacular was founded by an Oxford, Mass., mailman in 1988. The original show featured 185 jack o' lanterns carved by local residents that were showcased for one night on a hill behind a local school. Now, more than 5,000 pumpkins are involved, and the trail attracts 80,000 visitors over the course of its one-month run, which ends Sunday.
A team of 30 professional pumpkin carvers - many of whom take leaves of absence from their jobs as plumbers, carpenters, teachers or cooks for the duration of the Spectacular - spend six weeks creating the trail, themed "Around the World" this year. The pumpkins are combined with special lighting, music and 3-D effects for the three-acre trail, which gained national acclaim on CBS's "Early Show" and CNN.
Expect to see glowing scenes of Oktoberfest in Germany, Lance Armstrong in the Tour de France, canals in Venice, Japanese pagodas, the Parthenon in Greece, the Congo and the lost city of Atlantis -even the Lord of the Rings is present, with an entire hobbit-house worth of pumpkins depicting scenes from the trilogy.
"They have a Spongebob Squarepants pumpkin," chuckled Laura Dunn, public relations specialist at the zoo.
The Spectacular has certain staples - the blazing "Tree of Light" and "Laughing Place," for example. "(The Laughing Place has) got a lot of bigger pumpkins and the lighting is fun, and they play this song that's a mixture of techno and - well, it's just techno, really," Dunn said. "We get tons of people calling and asking what that song is. If you go through, you'll know the Laughing Place when you see it," she said.
Visitors will be admitted to the trail from 6-10 p.m. tonight, tomorrow night and on Halloween, rain or shine. "We see all ages," Dunn said. "It depends on the time of night. Until 8, it's a lot of families. After that, we get a lot of couples, college-age kids, people just, you know, having a good time."
The trail ends with a tribute to the United States, including a giant pumpkin carved with the Statue of Liberty. Even Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry and President George W. Bush are illuminated as pumpkin heads reminding visitors to vote on Tuesday.
Admission to the Spectacular is $12 for adults, and proceeds go toward environmental education and conservation efforts, as well as new exhibit construction and zoo improvements.
