Thousands of lit up pumpkins will be taking over a park near Toronto, Canada Reviews

This Halloween season, Ontarians have a chance to walk through a scenic 1 km trail in Milton, Ontario, featuring more than 10,000 hand carved jack-o-lanterns, pumpkin sculptures and live carving demonstrations (did we mention it all takes place after dark?). And this month, you can start the Halloween fun early!

This is the sixth year in a row that Canada’s award-winning outdoor Halloween event is taking place in Country Heritage Park in Milton (about a one hour drive from downtown Toronto). This spectacular display takes a creative team of local Canadian artists 11 months to create.

Although the event takes place in the evening hours, it’s fun for the whole family (kids under three are free). And on Wednesday Oct. 9, 16, 23 and 30, you can even bring your pets for dedicated pet nights — costumes encouraged!

If you’ve gone before, don’t worry – the team creates a brand new show every year. This year’s sculptures will include a carnival of horrors, dragons and other spooky animals, plus brand new scenes with fun themes. Also new this year is an extra-spooky medieval dungeon maze for visitors to walk through — featuring a torture chamber, an armoury, a wizards study and a dungeon, and rumour has it there’s a smoke cannon that comes with its own evil curse. Back again this year will be live pumpkin carving demonstrations, a Trick or Treat area and plenty of thrilling photo ops.

Three full-time carvers will bring thousands of pumpkins to life. For larger sculptures, it can take up to 200 hours to carve. The carvers use a combination of craft (foam) pumpkins and real fresh pumpkins sourced from local Ontario farms to produce the show.

Pumpkins After Dark will take place at Country Heritage Park, 8560 Tremaine Rd. Milton, Ontario. The event runs until Oct. 31, and all tickets must be pre-purchased.

For more information, visit https://pumpkinsafterdark.com/ontario/.

For more pumpkin festivals in Ontario, click here.