If you’re not interested in parties and dressing up for Halloween, there are plenty of fun festival themed events around LA for Halloween.
I went to an awesome event this weekend, called the Rise of the Jack O’Lanterns. I loved it because it was unique, outside, and casual. It’s a great place to stroll around, take pictures, and catch up with friends on a Saturday or Sunday night (or since graduate students have pretty open schedules, maybe even a weeknight!).
It’s a quarter mile stretch with 5000 amazing, hand-carved pumpkins displayed along the route. The pumpkins are in various forms, sizes, and shapes and some even have celebrities carved into them! This annual event takes place in Santa Anita Park, near Pasadena, which is famous for its horse race track. The park is about 30 minutes away from USC.
My favorite ones were of Yoda ready to slay someone with the force of his light saber, a skeleton playing soccer, and the Chinese dragon. The cartoon carvings of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump were pretty funny too. There were cartoons of SpongeBob and the minions from the Despicable Me movie. Since it was next to a race track, they also had carvings of each of the horses that race there.
If you decide to do some pumpkin carving of your own this season, here is some inspiration.
Published on October 22nd, 2015
Last updated on August 29th, 2017