The Lake Zurich Village Board approved an elaborate jack-o-lantern display that is scheduled to run in October at Paulus Park.
The display would be more like an event or festival – the first of its kind – and intended to be family-friendly, focused on children and not spooky or scary. It would also raise money for the village, officials said.
“Based on what I’ve heard, it sounds like a neat proposal,” mayor Tom Poynton said during the June 7 meeting.
The display would occupy nearly a mile of the park and include a walking path with 10-15 stations and, collectively, about 200 professionally carved pumpkins. Each station would also have sound effects and the pumpkins would be lit with flameless candles, according to plans for the display.
Lake Zurich-based All Community Events proposed the idea.
Peter Starykowicz, president of the organization, said he had kids wanted an alternative to haunted houses.
“You’ll never find me at a haunted house,” he told the Village Board.
He said his business primarily runs winter events, races and light shows, so the Halloween one is new.
“We’re going to have installations,” he told the board. “Some are going to be one with nature, in terms of integrating a myriad of jack-o-lanterns in with nature, others are going to be closer to statues.”
Some pumpkins will be stacked to resemble unicorns, dinosaurs and other animals. The event will run Thursdays through Sundays throughout October, and it will be a paid, ticketed event kicking off around dusk or late afternoon, officials explained.
Starykowicz said he doesn’t believe the sound will be an issue for nearby residents.
“It’s not going to be audible to the neighbors, which is an important thing,” he said.
According to his proposal, the sound will be aimed toward Route 12.
In addition, Starykowicz said he would pay the village 5% of the ticket price as a fee, and he estimated the tickets would cost “somewhere around $18 or $19.”
He said it would cost roughly the same as a visit to a corn maze, and kids under a certain age would be admitted free of charge. Adult tickets would cost somewhere around $20 and kids somewhere in between, he said.
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“If there’s great popularity to the event and we’re lucky enough to see really good numbers…I can see (tickets) going toward $25. But it all depends how people react to it.”
Everyone on the board seemed amenable to the idea, although a few trustees had questions about practical aspects of the displays.
“My question is, how does it hold up to the wind and the rain?” Trustee Marc Spacone asked.
“We have great experience in shoring everything up so it can withstand great wind,” Starykowicz said.
Poynton said he suspects potential noise will continue to be an issue.
“We’re not going to make everyone happy with the noise, I can tell you that. But I think it’s a worthwhile event,” he said.
Jesse Wright is a freelancer.