Discounted tickets are now on sale online for the Cal Poly Pomona Pumpkin Festival.
Come pick out a pumpkin for $5 each – any size – from the patch. Enjoy hay rides, the corn maze, the Cal Poly Pomona Insect Fair, pony rides, the petting farm and much, much more.
“The pumpkin festival is a fun, family event that is the best entertainment value in Southern California this season,” says Craig Walters, the festival’s director. “But we also hope that you’ll learn something new about farming, which continues to be a major industry in California that offers science and technology-related careers for our students.”
The two-day festival will be held 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Oct. 6 and 7, at Cal Poly Pomona’s AGRIscapes Center, 4102 S. University Drive.
This year, the corn maze will include some added challenges. Ag Discovery Lane will have new blacksmithing and service animal demonstrations and a livestock section with animal babies. In addition to the pie-eating and seed-spitting contests, the festival will have a rubber duck race and a new contest to be announced in the weeks ahead.
Festival-goers can watch cow-milking, soap-making, and blacksmithing demonstrations and a beekeeping exhibit; make their own rag dolls; play games at student-run booths and taste fresh-squeezed orange juice from the Cal Poly Pomona Farm Store. A farmers’ market will feature student-grown fruits and vegetables. Live musical performances also will take place during the festival, and even more vendors will be selling many different types of food.
Children can visit the Children’s Garden, get their faces painted, decorate pumpkins, compete in a costume contest, crawl through squash tunnels or pick small pumpkins at the Kid’s Patch.
Discounted tickets purchased in advance through the Pumpkin Festival website are $4 for adults and $3 for children ages 2 to 12. They will be sold online until 7 a.m. the first day of the festival. The discounted tickets also can be purchased at the AGRIscapes Office near the Cal Poly Pomona Farm Store.
Tickets at the gate on festival weekend will be $5 for adults and $4 for children ages 2 to 12.
Cal Poly Pomona students can buy specially discounted tickets with student ID either at the AGRIscapes office or at the gate on festival weekend.
Children 2 and under are admitted free. Parking is included with the admission. Some activities, like the Insect Fair, petting farm, corn maze, and hay ride, will require an additional fee.
Discounted tickets for groups of 15 or larger are available. For more information or to purchase pumpkins in bulk, please contact agriscapesinfo@cpp.edu.
For those who don’t like crowds at the festival and just want to buy a pumpkin, the patch will be open from Tuesday to Sunday starting Oct. 9 through the end of the month. Admission to the patch is free during this period, but free parking will be limited.
All pumpkins from the patch are $5 any size.
All proceeds will help support the Huntley College of Agriculture’s farm operations, student clubs, and agricultural education and outreach activities.
Who: Cal Poly Pomona
Huntley College of Agriculture
What: Cal Poly Pomona Pumpkin Festival
Where: AGRIscapes Center
4102 S. University Drive
Pomona, CA
When: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Oct. 6 and 7
Tickets & More info: http://pumpkinfestival.cpp.edu
Contact: pumpkinfestival@cpp.edu
(909) 869-2215