"If I go in and I'm like, 'I'm just gonna knock this out,' the pumpkins resist," Peter Savigny told the Daily Hampshire Gazette this month. "They don't give me the art I want. They fight me." Savigny carves from a shed at his home in Granby, where he moved last summer. Starting Friday, October 9, his work fills a looping trail at Look Memorial Park, 300 North Main St. in Florence, for the first year of the ALLURA Pumpkin Art Spectacular.
The pumpkins are foam molds lit from inside with LEDs. Savigny told the Gazette he uses them because real pumpkins would rot or get eaten by wildlife. That small detail changes the calendar. A show that doesn't rot can run longer than a carved pumpkin on a porch, and this one runs until November 1. With the Haunted Train running on its own schedule nearby, Look Park now has two different evening calendars layered over the same few weeks. Knowing where they overlap is the key to planning October.
What Savigny is bringing to North Main Street
Savigny spent a long career in television art direction, mostly in New York City. He worked for ABC, HBO, Showtime and Discovery Channel, designed interstitials for the 1988 and 1994 Olympic Games, and won five Emmy Awards. The pumpkin work began in 2019 with a real pumpkin he carved. After that, someone from the Hudson Valley show "The Great Jack O'Lantern Blaze" asked him to create work for them.
In a Northampton Chamber profile, Savigny said that after moving to the Valley he went looking for a venue and was pointed to Look Park. He found the setting a good fit, and the park's team was excited to host the work.
The Gazette counts 13 scenes on the trail, with fairies, dragons, and designs drawn from "Edward Scissorhands" and "The Wizard of Oz." The event's own pages describe a path that is fully accessible and stroller-friendly. A leisurely walk takes about 45 to 60 minutes, and you can loop it again on the same ticket.
Two shows, two schedules
The Haunted Train is the older of the two events. Mark Penney, Look Park's operations director, told The Reminder last year that it had been running for "decades." The two events share a park but keep different hours, and the gap between those schedules is what makes planning tricky.
| ALLURA Pumpkin Art Spectacular | Look Park's Haunted Train | |
|---|---|---|
| Hours | 6:30 to 8:45 p.m. | 5 to 9 p.m., last ride 8:45 p.m. |
| Nights | 15 select nights, Oct. 9 to Nov. 1 | Listed as "10 Nights October 15–October 30" and also as "Select Nights October 9–October 30" |
| Entry | Timed tickets, sold online | 2026 sales method not yet posted |
| Price | Starting at $19 adults, $16 seniors 65+, $14 children 4–12, under 3 free | 2026 fares not yet posted |
ALLURA's 15 nights fall into a regular pattern. Opening weekend is Friday through Sunday, October 9 to 11. After that it runs Thursday through Sunday for three straight weeks: October 15 to 18, 22 to 25, and 29 to November 1. The Haunted Train's last ride is at 8:45 p.m., the same minute the pumpkin trail closes, but it starts an hour and a half earlier. On nights when both are running, a family with small children could ride the train in the last daylight and then walk the trail once it's fully dark.
Two notes on planning. ALLURA's site says prices "increase slightly closer to Halloween" and suggests coming on earlier dates. Every ticket has a timed window, and you need to arrive within 15 minutes of yours. The event doesn't treat its late-October nights the same as its first ones. The Thursdays in mid-October are the cheapest and least crowded way in.
The Saturday when it all happens at once
Saturday, October 24, is the day both calendars fully overlap. Look Park's fall festival, Haunted Harvest, runs from noon to 9 p.m. Penney described the festival as being in its third year back in 2025. This year's flyer lays out the day like this:
- 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Puttin' Pumpkins mini-golf at the Look Park course, a fundraiser for the Northampton Parents Center.
- 12:15 to 1:15 p.m. Mr. Liam Music Show.
- 1 to 4 p.m. KidzLand Ghoulish Games, run by Northampton Parks & Recreation. A $10 wristband, cash only, covers unlimited use of the bounce slide, carnival games, arts and crafts, and lawn and sports games.
- 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. Tom & Corrie.
- 4 to 5 p.m. The Grumpytime Club Band, and the Haunted Train starts running after 4 p.m.
- 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. The Avenue.
- After dark ALLURA, with online tickets required.
All day, there's the Boneyard Brews Beer Garden pouring the park's Pines IPA and Look Park Lager. Food trucks include Local Burger, Cote's Cooks and La Veracruzana, along with a craft and vendor fair, face painting, a costume contest, hot apple cider and fresh cider donuts. Regular train rides run throughout the day.
On a normal October weekend, the train and the trail are separate events that happen to share a parking lot. On the 24th, the festival ties them into one long day that starts with mini-golf before noon and ends on the trail after 8 p.m. If you want a pumpkin trail ticket for that evening, buy it ahead. The flyer says ALLURA tickets for Haunted Harvest are online only, and that Saturday falls in the late-October stretch when ALLURA prices go up.
For a quieter start to the same day, the Pine Grove section of the Rocky Hill Greenway reopened this summer after its first phase of restoration. The city and MassAudubon, working with the Division of Ecological Restoration and SumCo Eco Contracting, turned the former golf course into a brook-side walk. The work added a pedestrian bridge over Nashawannuck Brook, thousands of new plantings, and a parking lot at the Florence Road end. A daylight walk there before heading to Look Park makes for a full Saturday in Florence.
Halloween night, and the night after
October 31 is the second night when everything lines up, this time across Florence center as well as the park. The Florence Civic and Business Association's Rag Shag Parade steps off at 6 p.m. from Trinity Park, heads down Main Street to the Florence Civic Center, and ends with a haunted house inside the VFW. Up North Main Street, ALLURA opens its 6:30 p.m. entry window that same night. If you want both, the parade comes first and the trail gets a later ticket.
Then there's November 1. It's a Sunday, the Haunted Train's listed run is over, the parade is done, and the foam pumpkins are still lit until 8:45 p.m. It's the last night of the show and the only night of the season with no Halloween-night competition. The site's note about prices rising near Halloween doesn't say whether the final night is priced as a peak date, so check when you buy.
Opening weekend has company
The first ALLURA weekend lands on one of Northampton's busiest arts weekends of the fall. Paradise City Arts Festival runs October 9 to 11 at 54 Old Ferry Road with more than 200 artists and makers, live music, and food from vendors including Local Burger, Little Wall, India House, Ginger Love Cafe and Skinny Pancake. On Friday, October 9, Arts Night Out at 33 Hawley runs from 5 to 8 p.m. It's free and includes gallery openings, artist talks, a performance by Kayla Song, a NOHO Art Club gathering, and a live recording of a Northampton Open Media podcast. Northampton Center for the Arts, A.P.E. Ltd. and Northampton Open Media host it.
The pumpkin trail's 6:30 p.m. entry windows open while Arts Night Out still has 90 minutes left to run, and ALLURA's site puts Look Park about eight minutes from downtown Northampton. On opening Friday, you could start at the galleries on Hawley Street and book a later trail ticket in Florence for the same evening.
Still to be confirmed
A few details hadn't been posted as of early October, so check them before heading out:
- Haunted Train nights and fares. Look Park's events page lists two different date ranges and hasn't published 2026 prices.
- ALLURA rain policy and gate sales. The event FAQ lists both questions, but the answers weren't available when we checked.
- ALLURA food trucks. The event says trucks will be on site on select evenings, with confirmation to come.
- Haunted Harvest details. The park's listing still says "Stay Tuned for More Details."
Parking at Look Park is free on site, with overflow on Maple Street. ALLURA suggests arriving 15 minutes before your entry window and dressing warmly.
At Ashton Realty Group, we love seeing Look Park busy on an October night, because evenings like these are part of what makes Florence feel like home. If you're near North Main Street and wondering what that everyday appeal adds to your own home's value, ask us for a free home valuation, and we'll go through the numbers with you.
