Night of 100 Pumpkins Draws New Paltz Artists
Jack o' Lantern Art on Display for Hundreds of Halloween Visitors
Oct 27, 2009
The Night of 100 Pumpkins is arguably the most visually stunning Halloween event in New Paltz. Upon entering the yard of The Bakery, visitors are transported by the hundreds of glowing gourds into a fantasy land where pumpkins portray visages and vignettes from the traditional to the terrifying. With prizes for over sixty categories including humorous, political, and traditional jack o' lanterns, the contest gets well over the hundred pumpkins in its name and draws a thousand people to the shop on Halloween night to see the entries.
Artistic Expression for Halloween
According to Bakery owner David Santner, who was interviewed for this story on October 24, 2009, the Night of 100 Pumpkins was started in 1991 as the result of the suggestion of a kindergarten teacher. New Paltz is a very artistic community, and the entries have always been extremely creative.
The contest rules themselves simply state, “to enter you must carve or paint a pumpkin,” and local pumpkin artists have interpreted this in a tremendous number of ways. Because the types of entries are so variable, the contest categories are not finalized until the last moment. “Last year we had a lot of Sarah Palin pumpkins, so we made a political category,” said Santner.
While many of the entries are pumpkins carved into a grinning or grimacing face, many contestants take creative liberties with the medium. Some of the less traditional pumpkins from 2008 include:
- A pumpkin as the monitor of a computer featuring Barack Obama on the screen,
- a melting Wicked Witch of the West,
- an horrific rock climbing death caused by a cackling pumpkin-man,
- a scene of children trick-or-treating, and
- a bowl of soup chock full of ghastly bugs and dismembered body parts.
Some of the contestants use gourds instead of pumpkins, to achieve smaller effects. Each entry is meticulously photographed for display on the Bakery's web site prior to their being lit from within for the public display. The lighting itself takes about half an hour to complete, and involves “whoever's free to help out” from the staff, according to Santner.
Entering the Night of 100 Pumpkins
Carvers interested in entering the contest must bring their completed pumpkin art to The Bakery on October 30, where they are informed that all the pumpkins will be on display from 6-8PM on Halloween night. Prizes and pumpkins are available for pickup on November 1, with any remaining pumpkins being composted the following week. The prizes are all donated by local businesses, who are listed on the Bakery's site along with all of the entries from the previous Night of 100 Pumpkins.
More on Halloween in New Paltz:
- Haunted Hasbrouck Carries on a Scary Tradition - discussing the famous Guenther haunted house and how it became a haunted playground
- New Paltz Halloween Parade Open to All - history of a forty-year-old Halloween parade that draws thousands from around the Hudson Valley
- Huguenot Street's Historical Halloween Event - Historic Huguenot Street researches its archives to create an event based on the "darker side of New Paltz history."
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