Last month I shared with you a new experience that was coming to Calabasas this Halloween season called Nights of the Jack. This unique experience features thousands of jack o’ lanterns carved around various themes ranging from dinosaurs and sea life to sports stars and celebrities. Last night, the folks behind the event were kind enough to invite me out to their preview night to experience Nights of the Jack first hand, and it was quite the treat.
Nights of the Jack far surpassed my expectations and it’s clear the team behind it has gone to great lengths to create a fun, high-quality event for SoCal families to enjoy this Halloween season. The fun begins as soon as you enter thanks to the collection of giant Halloween cutouts, which make for the perfect Halloween photo opp. Reminiscent of the cutouts at local pumpkin patches from when you were a kid, you can put your face through the hole and become part of a witches brew, join a family of bats, become a ghost, or pose next to a giant black cat, a skeleton head and more.
This same area is where you can grab a bite to eat, enjoy a seasonal brew or cocktail, or simply hang out and enjoy the autumn evening before venturing down the half-mile trail that makes up Nights of the Jack. Nights of the Jack has partnered with local outlets offering premiere food and beverage options on site.
The team behind the event has done a great job at making the Nights of the Jack trail an immersive experience. Show elements like lighting, music, and fog add to the overall Halloween vibe of the trail as you make your way through the numerous jack o’ lantern installations that make up Nights of the Jack. As you first make your way onto the trail its dark and there isn’t anything to see, but as you make your way around the corner to the first installation you’re greeted by a series of colorful jack o’ lanterns. This transition makes you feel like you’ve entered another world, a world where you’ll come across a variety of jack o’ lanterns themed to things like dinosaurs, sports, sea life, Dia de los Muertos, the solar system, Universal’s monsters, Disney princesses, celebrities and more. You’ll even venture through a graveyard and come face to face with a trio of singing, animated jack o’ lanterns. Check out the slideshow below of some of my favorite jack o’ lanterns and installations of the evening, but know that this is far from everything you’ll experience on the trail.
As you can see from the slideshow, Nights of the Jack is a unique experience that is fun for all ages and definitely, something families will want to check out this Halloween season. As a father of two, I spent the evening wishing I had brought the kids along as I know they would have enjoyed every minute of the experience.
Nights of the Jack opens to the public tonight and will continue over the span of 20 nights and conclude on November 4, 2018. The experience is being held at King Gillette Ranch (26800 Mulholland HWY, Calabasas, 91302). Tickets are available for purchase at $25 for adults (13 years old and up) and $20 for children (4 years to 12 years old), children 0 to 3 years old are free. Tickets are available for 8-10 nightly time slots that grant entry every half hour from 6pm – 11pm on each night of the event. Tickets can be purchased through the Nights of the Jack website.
