Jack-o'-lanterns take over Skylands Stadium for spooky Halloween event

SUSSEX COUNTY, N.J. (PIX11) - The Northwestern New Jersey fog makes for a spooky scene for an equally spooky Halloween event at Skylands Stadium.

Featuring 6,000 jack-o'-lanterns designed with such detail, it's scary.

"The event has gotten so much traction through the years, and it's kind of just taken off," said Justin Ferrarella, GM of Skylands Stadium.

One of North Jersey's most extravagant Halloween events was born as a socially-distanced drive-through event during the pandemic.

"We were looking really to give families something to do," said Ferrarella. "Everybody was couped up in their houses."

It's since morphed into a walk-through event, and the kids aren't the only ones getting treats.

"There's a beer garden," said Ferrarella. "You can enjoy live music and sit around the fires. As you're walking through the events, you can drink as well."

From under the sea to some of the best movies of our time, the 6,000 jack-o'-lanterns not only light up the night, they tell some of our favorite stories.

"Just the creative nature of what happens is pretty incredible, right?' said Ferrarella. "You see the detail as you're walking through the trail, the detail from the uplighting to the lights that are in it to just the hand carvings, you know, to make the jack-o'-lanterns come to life, it's pretty incredible."

So, who is the jack of all trades behind these jack-o'-lanterns? That would be the artists at jackolanternjourney.com, a group that travels the country to hand-carve and hand-ink jack-o'-lanterns.

"We want to blow them out of the water," said jackolanternjourney.com Creative Director Bill Bywater. 

For Skylands Stadium, they left no gourd behind.

"Normally, we do 5,000 (jack-o'-lanterns), but they have a particularly large venue in the stadium with all the seating. It gives a great opportunity to have an extra push of jack-o'-lantern content," said Bywater. 

"We take these spaces and we transform them into pumpkin wonderlands," said jackolanternjourney.com CEO Debbi Katz.

Tickets start at $24 per person. You can buy them online at http://skylandsstadium.com/jackolantern.