The highlight of Great Pumpkin LumiNights at Wild Adventures for us was the LumiNight Legends Pumpkin Gallery. Here you’ll see your favorite singers, actors, sports stars and Wild Adventures attractions all carved into glowing pumpkins. The pumpkins are created by master pumpkin carver Jim Morey and there’s a video playing in the corner of the gallery explaining the carving process. Mr. Morey’s story is also quite unique in that carving pumpkins started as a personal hobby, but eventually morphed into a full-time profession. Mr. Morey is from Huntington Beach, California and his work has been shown on TV and at festivals and attractions across the country.
The LumiNight Legends Pumpkin Gallery features nearly 200 pumpkins hand-carved by Mr. Morey. He uses craft pumpkins instead of fresh pumpkins as this lets the art last longer. The pumpkins can then return each year, and new carvings can join the collection. The pumpkins may not be fresh, but each design still takes skill and time. Every line, light area and shadow is carved into the surface by hand by Mr. Morey.
Highlights of this year’s LumiNight Legends Pumpkin Gallery include the Zombieland series of pumpkins (part of the film was shot at Wild Adventures), a huge collection of animals, Dolly Parton (RIP) and several of the parks signature rides. Mr. Morey is known for carving faces that look like real people and this is obvious as the pumpkins are instantly recognizable, even without the name labels. There are also pumpkins for some popular Georgia and Florida sites, beverage brands and sports logos. The sheer number of pumpkins and their intricate detail will have you stopping here for a while. We walked through a couple times and found new pumpkins catching our attention each time.
Great Pumpkin LumiNights runs weekends (Friday night through Sunday) through November 1st, so there’s plenty of time to see this year’s display. This pumpkins are also indoors so you’ll have great viewing day or night. You can also follow Mr. Morey’s work on hist Instagram page @vipcarvings. Perhaps seeing all the great pumpkins will inspire you to up your pumpkin carving game for this Halloween too!
