On Saturday morning, October 10, a stack of uncarved pumpkins will sit near the Thomas Rees Memorial Carillon at 1740 W. Fayette Ave. Anyone can take one, carve it at no cost and leave it behind. Six days later, many of those pumpkins will be lit and on display at the Jack-O-Lantern Spectacular. Two days after that, the same pumpkins will be offered back to the public for a small donation.
Most event calendars list Carve for the Carillon, the Jack-O-Lantern Spectacular and the Pumpkin Give-Away as three separate events. The organizers describe them as one sequence. On its carving page, the Carillon says pumpkins carved by the community "will be displayed during the Jack-O-Lantern Spectacular the following weekend." On the Spectacular page, it says many of the pumpkins on display "come straight from" the carving event. For anyone within walking distance of the park, the most useful way to plan October is to follow one pumpkin from the carving table to the display and then home.
Saturday, October 10: The Pumpkin Is Free and the Knife Is Yours
Carve for the Carillon runs Saturday, October 10, and Sunday, October 11, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day near the Carillon. Admission and pumpkins are both free. Pumpkins are handed out first come, first served each day, and the event page says plainly that "once they're gone, they're gone."
The organizers will have a limited number of carving supplies on hand and suggest bringing your own. Their prep list:
- Pumpkin saws, scoopers or a carving kit
- Pencils, markers or stencils to sketch the design first
- A picnic blanket or a folding table
- Wet wipes, paper towels and garbage bags for cleanup
Their design advice matters most. Every pumpkin will be lit from the inside at the Spectacular, so the Carillon recommends bold, simple shapes and larger cut-outs, which glow best in the dark, plus a few small details for character. A pumpkin carved on Saturday afternoon is really built to be seen on a Friday night.
You can also hear live bells while you carve. October is the first month of the Carillon's fall and winter recital schedule, with free recitals Saturdays at 2 p.m. and Sundays at 2 and 4 p.m. All three of those times fall inside the carving hours.
Volunteers have a second way in. Setup and pumpkin-prep shifts run 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., 9 a.m. to noon, or noon to 4 p.m., and each volunteer receives one free ticket to the Jack-O-Lantern Spectacular at the end of the shift. Contact details are on the event page.
The carving page also lists one change for 2026. Scarecrow Row, which it calls "new this year," adds a trail of scarecrows made by local groups.
Friday, October 16: The Same Pumpkin, Lit
The Jack-O-Lantern Spectacular runs Friday, October 16, and Saturday, October 17, from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. at the Carillon. According to the organizers' history, more than 2,000 lit jack-o'-lanterns fill both the Carillon grounds and the Washington Park Botanical Garden, and attendance runs from 5,000 to 8,000 people a year. Those crowds come to see pumpkins that people from the community carved the weekend before.
The organizers' history also explains why the event works this way. A former Rees Carillon Society board member founded it after seeing the well-known Jack-O-Lantern Spectacular in Providence, Rhode Island. Providence uses only artists' pumpkins. Springfield's version was built around community participation, with the carving weekend held the second weekend of October and the display the following weekend.
Ticket prices depend on when and how you buy:
| Ticket | Advance price | Gate price |
|---|---|---|
| Adults | $7 | $10 |
| Kids, ages 4–11 | $5 | $7 |
| Kids, 3 and under | Free | Free |
| Payment accepted | Cash or check only | Credit cards accepted |
Advance tickets are sold at Potter Drug in Springfield, among other listed outlets. For a family of four with two kids between 4 and 11, buying ahead costs $24 instead of $34 at the gate. Carve-weekend volunteers can skip the purchase entirely with the ticket they earned.
Besides the pumpkins, the event page lists live Carillon music, special lighting, spooky sound effects, a display called the Tree of Lights, and food vendors.
On both nights, free remote parking and shuttle buses run from the former Ashley HomeStore Outlet at Wabash Avenue and Chatham Road. With thousands of visitors expected over two evenings, the shuttle lot is how the event keeps cars off the streets around the park. Anyone driving in from elsewhere on the west side may also find it the easier choice.
The shuttle lot is on the same stretch of Wabash as Chocolate Cafe, at 4151 Wabash Ave. The State Journal-Register reported the cafe's opening on August 6, 2026. It is chocolate-focused and serves pastries and drinks that include coffee, milkshakes and mojitos. The cafe's hours aren't part of our research, so check them before you count on a stop there on the way to the shuttle.
Sunday, October 18: The Pumpkin Goes Home
After the Spectacular closes, its pumpkins go back out to the public. The Pumpkin Give-Away is Sunday, October 18, at Washington Park. For a small donation, visitors can take pumpkins from the event home, including, as the organizers put it, a favorite "from the show." Straw bales are $5 each, and the proceeds support the Rees Memorial Carillon.
That makes October 18 the last day of the cycle. A pumpkin taken for free on October 10, carved on a blanket near the tower and lit for two nights can end up on a porch near the park on October 18. The posted materials don't give a start time for the give-away, so check the Carillon's site that week before you go.
Sunday, October 18 also has the regular 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. recitals on the fall schedule.
The Daytime Half of the Same Nine Days
The Spectacular is listed on the Botanical Garden grounds as well as the Carillon's, and the garden is worth a daytime visit in the same week. The conservatory there has changed since last October. The Springfield Park District announced a May 18, 2026 ribbon-cutting for the renovated conservatory. The project replaced the original acrylic dome with a new one on the same 50-foot-diameter footprint, built slightly taller, and also replaced the entryway windows and the heating and cooling systems. WAND reported the project at $1.3 million, replacing a dome that dated to 1971. The State Journal-Register's reopening coverage put annual visitation at about 60,000.
According to the Park District, the dome holds more than 150 species from tropical Africa, Asia and South America, and the 20-acre garden as a whole has more than 1,200 plant species, with rose, iris and shade gardens among its outdoor areas. The State Journal-Register also put the dome count above 150. The WAND report quoted a much higher number from a park board official, and the published accounts don't reconcile the two.
Admission to the grounds and the conservatory is free. Posted hours are noon to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday and noon to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. The Park District's facility page still says the conservatory is "currently closed for renovations." That line predates the May reopening and no longer applies.
On a carving Sunday, these schedules fit together without much planning:
- Pick up a pumpkin when the table opens at 11 a.m.
- Carve through the 2 p.m. recital.
- Walk to the conservatory, which opens at noon on weekends.
- Return for the 4 p.m. recital as carving wraps up.
When the Pumpkins Are Gone
After October 18, the park's calendar shifts from pumpkins to plants and then to the holidays. These are the next dated events:
- Saturday, November 7, 1–4 p.m.: The Prairie State Orchid Society Plant Sale and Talk at the Botanical Garden. It is free. The Park District's listing says the sale pauses from 2 to 3 p.m. while Dr. Lawrence Zettler gives a presentation on orchids.
- December 5–20: The Winter Holiday Floral Show with more than 500 poinsettias, decorated fresh evergreens and tropical foliage. It is free and keeps the garden's usual weekday and weekend hours.
- Sunday, December 13, 3–5 p.m.: Caroling at the Carillon, free, with the community sing-along from 4 to 4:50 p.m.
The Carillon's Saturday and Sunday recitals continue through December, then take their usual break in January, February and March.
Our team at Melissa's Listings works in Springfield neighborhoods like the blocks around Washington Park, where events like these are part of the calendar every fall. If you own a home near the park and want to know how the market around it is moving this fall, start with an instant home valuation, and we're glad to talk through what the numbers mean for your street.
