Dollywood gears up for fall festival

Dollywood is gearing up for this year’s Harvest Festival, September 25 - October 31. Last season, the event won USA Today’s 10Best Award as the best fall theme park event in the country, due in large part to the Great Pumpkin LumiNights, a family-favorite.

Great Pumpkin LumiNights lets visitors stroll through thousands of pumpkins, including immersive and larger-than-life specialty displays. The event has expanded into the park’s newest section, Wildwood Grove, with additional elements and displays this year. Among the new displays is a sunflower field with dozens of stacked pumpkins cut to resemble sunflowers. The stacked pumpkin “sunflowers” range in size from six feet to over nine feet tall. Carving each stalk takes up to two hours, with additional time to stack the pumpkins and install lights.

Dollywood is open Friday - Monday. Once the Harvest Festival begins the park will be open 10 a.m. – 9 p.m. each day of operation, closed Tuesdays and Thursdays. For more information and an operating calendar, visit www.dollywood.com.