Walk through an orange sea

Grab your Halloween costumes and leave your flashlights at home: The Pumpkin Walk is back for its fourth straight year. And it promises to be bigger than ever.

The Yorkton Co-op is hosting its annual Pumpkin Walk at Jaycee Beach on Oct. 28 from 6:30-8:30 p.m. Attendees can walk through a guided path surrounded by hundreds of carved pumpkins. Hot dogs and hot chocolate will be available.

After previous years with carnival and zombie-style decorations, the co-op is creating a new theme: Pirates.

“We’ve always got a different theme to it,” said Bruce Thurston, general manager for the Yorkton Co-op.

Aside from the nautical setting, the Pumpkin Walk will feature something special for people to see in the sky.

“We’ve got a bang-up firework show, literally,” Thurston said.

The co-op has teamed with Paradise Fireworks, a Regina-based company. They travel across Saskatchewan arranging firework shows.

Paradise Fireworks worked with the Yorkton Co-op last year. They’re returning to the Pumpkin walk with a pirate-themed “pyromusical.” A pyromusical is a firework display that coincides with a music performance.

“[Fireworks] explode on the beat,” said Les Engen, owner of Paradise Fireworks. “[The] colours and intensity match the tempo.”

The pyromusical will be built around pirate-style music and will last for roughly 15 minutes.

“When people are cheering, you know you’ve hit the right chord,” Engen said.

Prairie Dome Seed Potatoes will be providing the pumpkins. There will be over 1100 carved jack-o’-lanterns. The co-op decided to let the community put their personal stamp on the pumpkins. They invited kids from Yorkton schools and seniors to carve the orange orbs for the path.

“Any group that wants to carve pumpkins is welcome to,” Thurston said. “It lights up our trail.”

As much fun as the Pumpkin Walk is, Thurston is looking forward to setting everything up.

“It’s an absolute blast,” he said. “That’s the fun part.”

Thurston is thrilled with the turnout for past Pumpkin Walks. Last year’s event had approximately 9500 attendees.

“The whole community gets involved,” he said. “It grew into something that’s absolutely tremendous now.”