Pumpkins After Dark: 10,000 pumpkins on display in Saskatoon

Ten thousand hand-carved pumpkins are now on display in Saskatoon as part of Pumpkins After Dark, a hand-carved pumpkin walk-through outdoor event.

The ticketed event runs every Thursday to Sunday and two days leading up to Halloween at Prairieland Park.

Brock Howard, show manager with Pumpkins After Dark, said the show works really well with families.

“We’re interactive from the moment you walk through the gate,” Howard said. “There’s all kinds of photo ops and treats.”

Here @CKOMNews we got a first look at Saskatoon’s first ever pumpkins in the dark event, that see over 10,000 hand carved pumpkins #YXE pic.twitter.com/82VsDFtWUu

— Will Mandzuk (@WMandzuk) October 11, 2024

When you walk through the pathway you’ll be greeted by some of Earth’s mightiest heroes in the Avengers.

Spiderman carved into a pumpkin webbing Thanos, also carved into a pumpkin (Will Mandzuk/650CKOM)

Howard outlined his favourite part of the walk.

“I definitely like the tunnel, that’s always a crowd pleaser,” he said. “It’s always great to walk through a whole tunnel covered in pumpkins.”

Each pumpkin in the tunnel has its own unique face carved into it.

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Ten thousand is a lot of carved pumpkins, and Howard said they get the pumpkins from out of the province.

“Our pumpkins came from a team out in Milton, Ontario,” Howard said. “They work year round to hand carve these displays and they put together these ornate carvings with nothing more powered than a dental dremel to really get those fine lines.”

If you walk far enough, attendeed are greeted by some heavyweight punchers in Rocky Balboa, Ivan Drago and Clubber Lang, from the Rocky movies.

Ivan Drago and Rocky Balboa carved into pumpkins (Will Mandzuk/650CKOM)

Each display has its own music or sound effects that partners with the theme of the pumpkin sculptures, and as you near the end of the walk you are greeted by a Saskatchewan Roughriders pumpkin carved logo, bringing a second fruit into the fanbase that also wears watermelons.

Riders logo carved into pumpkins at Pumpkins After Dark. (Will Mandzuk/650CKOM)

After you finish walking through the pumpkin path, attendees can also go through a black light 3-D maze.

“You can walk through really cool graphic designs with a pair of 3-D glasses on,” Howard said. “It makes it really different than walking through a normal maze.”

It takes the team in Saskatoon around two weeks to put together and set up the show, and this is the first time the event has come to Saskatoon.

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