At Kings Dominion, Saturdays and Sundays in October are set aside for two amazing events: The Great Pumpkin Fest and The Halloween Haunt. Our kids are too young for The Halloween Haunt, but The Great Pumpkin Fest is right up our alley! We spent the afternoon exploring the event and found four reasons families should visit this fall.
Our Day at The Great Pumpkin Fest
The Great Pumpkin Fest is a fun all-ages event at Kings Dominion. Only children under 60″ are encouraged to participate in games and trick-or-treating, though in our experience, they were not aggressive about enforcing this. Luckily my oldest child, quite tall for her age, did have the ability to play some games and, of course, ride some of the attractions.
We recently purchased season passes to Kings Dominion. Though we’ve been before, this was our inaugural visit with the passes and our first visit in several years.
We arrived about 30 minutes before park opening and that was plenty of time to secure a parking space, make our way through security, and scan our passes for admission into the park. We made our way down International Street, hung a left, and headed straight for The Great Pumpkin Fest!
1. The Goodies
When we first arrived at the park, we headed straight to The Great Pumpkin Fest Headquarters to pick up our complimentary treat bags. They were empty, but we were told we’d have the chance to fill them throughout Planet Snoopy. That’s exactly what we did!
While the children didn’t receive any candy at any of the trick-or-treat stops, they did have their selection of small toys: sticky bats, mazes, paddleballs, and so on. It was unseasonably warm at 85° that day, so the choice to provide trinkets instead of sugar was likely partly due to the weather and partly influenced by COVID.
A height check was set up at The Great Pumpkin Fest Headquarters, giving us the opportunity to have our children measured and assigned a wristband for ride access. Our youngest came in just over 48″, which opened up a new world of rides for him!
2. The Peanuts Gang
Character Meet & Greets were replaced with Character Meet & Treats for the Great Pumpkin Fest! There were definitely more characters here than we’re used to seeing and they even had on their own Halloween costumes, which was that much cuter.
Our favorite was the man himself, Charlie Brown, in a classic Frankenstein costume.
3. Games at the Midway
A spooky midway was set up for those who wanted to participate in ghostly games. Participants could pick a pumpkin to reveal the color underneath, toss a bean bag into a ghost’s mouth, break plates, or drop a ball into a cup. Each game had three potential prizes and all players were winners!
Games cost between 1 and 2 tokens per play. Tokens could be purchased at a booth nearby. The cost of 4 tokens was $15 ($13.50 with a passholder discount) and the cost of 8 tokens was $25 ($22.50 with a passholder discount).
Our kids won several stuffed animals and a unicorn lollipop playing the midway games. They had a great time and they were so proud of themselves!
4. Special Great Pumpkin Fest Activities
Peanuts characters hosted their own activities to celebrate the harvest. It added a fun, seasonal element to a familiar landscape. All of these events were free with admission and they were our favorite part of the festival!
Franklin had his own hay maze.
Hay mazes are classic fall! Be sure to stay with your child for this event as the exit is quite far from the entrance.
Lucy invited visitors to pedal around her family farm on mini tractors.
This was perhaps the cutest activity of them all. Children raced these tiny tractors in a continuous loop!
Sally hosted a pumpkin painting patch.
Yes, these pumpkins are free!
Plan Your Visit
Kings Dominion
16000 Theme Park Way
Doswell, Virginia 23047
website
The Great Pumpkin Fest takes place until 6:00PM on Saturdays and Sundays in late September and all of October.
