Spooktacular Delights and Frights Abound at Harvest Nights

Harvest at Newfields is back – and much bigger than last year’s inaugural event! It has expanded from a four-day weekend to 24 days in October and now features two separate daily events: Harvest Days and the all-new Harvest Nights! My parents and I went to Member Preview Night yesterday so we got a sneak peek at this fabulous fall festival that officially begins today. (You can check out our visit to Harvest’s weekend event last year here on the blog.)

Entry to Harvest Nights is along a winding path under cornstalk arches where trees, pumpkins, hay bales and cornstalks are lit in spooky hues of orange, crimson, yellow and midnight blue. Soon you arrive at the Garden Terrace, where gourds of every shape and size are arranged and illuminated by a palette of bold fall colors so that they glow in the inky black night. They spill down the spiral staircase, create a fall scene with the giant snail sculpture by Cracking Art (a fixture on the museum grounds since 2018), and tumble under trees draped in Spanish moss.

Talking pumpkins announce what you can expect to see on the rest of your visit, before you enter the Pumpkin Path of Peril. The trail through the enchanted forest is a new experience for Newfields visitors, open to guests for the first time. It used to be a service road for Oldfields staff called the Robbie Trail. Thousands of glowing jack-o-lanterns are everywhere – on the ground, in trees, atop walls – and misty fog and spooky music add to the ambiance. Ten foot tall tree people made of vines, evocative of the ents of Middle-earth, can be found deep within the forbidden forest too. It’s a haunting and spooky walking experience, but it’s definitely suitable for children, without the scare factor of a haunted house. Many secrets lurk within the shadows and fog, but it’s all pretty tame. The scariest sight you’ll see are probably the menacing (but stationary) scarecrows in the apple orchard.

Deep within Pumpkin Hollow, you’ll cross the historic interurban railway, abandoned since 1941, where the lost ghost train rumbles through the trees. Sirens, lights, and wind from the approaching create an eerie experience as you stand on the bridge and the train careens straight toward you. The bridge rumbles and shakes beneath your feet, creating a realistic effect.

Near the Beer Garden and Greenhouse, endless cornucopias of squash and pumpkins that are part of the Harvest Days experience are lit for nighttime visitors too. Like last year, over 10,000 Indiana-grown pumpkins and gourds are on display throughout the museum grounds and gardens. And it seems like even more with the addition of the pumpkins for Harvest Nights! The covered bridge made of pumpkins made its return this year and I thought it looked fantastic lit at night. I looked at my photos of it from last year and realized they switched up its design a lot! Last year’s covered bridge featured traditional orange pumpkins and lots of cornstalks while this year’s contains a variety of pumpkins and greenery instead of cornstalks.

The grand finale of Harvest Nights takes place at the historic Lilly House mansion, which has been transformed into a haunted party at Mischief Manor. An elaborate minutes long light show incorporating the Lilly House’s historic past was projected onto its exterior, a project by Blockhouse Studios that took several months to map and create. The cast of characters was inspired by those of Newfields’ and Lilly House’s past. Dancers from the Indianapolis Ballet company were filmed using green screens and then incorporated into the show. My favorite part of the production was seeing a virtual version of the Three Graces marble sculpture come alive as dancing haunted ghosts! It’s my mom’s favorite sculpture on the museum grounds and we have many photos with it taken over the years. We watched the whole show twice. The fantastic optical tricks and illusions at Mischief Manor were the highlight of Harvest Nights for me!

As our walking tour winded down, it took us past a ghost tennis match taking place on the old site of the Lilly House tennis court. Seeing ghosts play tennis is something I never thought I would need to see, but it was highly entertaining.

Finally, we crossed Woodstock bridge, lined on either side with pumpkins and overlooking Pumpkin Hollow. The birds eye view of the jack o lanterns trail was a beautiful sight.

The whole experience took about 90 minutes. As soon as it was over, I wished I could go back through! I definitely want to return next year. Harvest Nights is a great addition to Newfields night time event lineup, which previously included just Winterlights at Christmas time. This has been one of my favorite events of 2020. Advance tickets, face masks, staggered entry times and social distancing are required. You can plan your visit and purchase tickets here.